I listened to CSPAN for a couple hours this morning. I was appalled that for about 45 minutes Congressmen (Yes, men. No women.) were “debating” the passage of a bill honoring the Pittsburg Steelers. It felt like these elected representatives were making a joke of the current economic situation. Instead of spending their time, energy, intelligence…and our money, on making progress on real problems, they were making a farce of the legislative system.
I guess it was no worse than most of the Republican input on the economic stimulus debate. Republicans passed inscrutable bank bail outs prior to Obama’s inauguration, but now oppose creating jobs while moving the country toward energy independence and lower health care costs. It seems that number one on the Republican agenda is causing Obama and the Democrats to fail. At least in the debates I’ve heard on CSPAN, there has been a lot of criticism by Republicans, but no constructive alternatives. The Bush administration created the current crisis and it seems as if the Republican party has decided their best chance of regaining power is to facilitate a deepening crisis and more pain for citizens over the next four years.
I wish there was a minimum requirement of CSPAN viewing in order to vote in the U.S. Then more citizens would see for themselves what is going on, rather than getting a summary from their favorite commentator.