I miss the healthcare debate. That was an issue you could sink your teeth into. The issues today are just not exciting. I hope Greece can fix their financial problem and I expect we will eventually fix our oil spill problem, but the politics surrounding these and other issues is a dumbing experience.
I am a small government, main street kind of guy. Politicians use every issue to expand the power of government and the press acts like every issue impacts the little guys, like me. I don’t think so.
This Greece thing is the prime example. The country is going bankrupt and the European Union has bailed them out. The problem is simple, Greece has been paying too many government employees too big a pay package. Our stock markets almost crashed over the deal. This issue has nothing to do with most Americans. On top of that, I have a problem with bailing out organizations that are marked by massive waste and corruption.
The financial reform bill is another useless pile of hooey. With a thousand laws already on the books that were not enforced, the only answer for politicians is more regulation. Again, it means very little on main street. I never understood the bank bailout. If the banks “too big too fail” were allowed to go under, all small investors would have been protected by the FDIC. The market can regulate itself better than government and for a lot less money. Letting companies or countries fail because of their wasteful practices will cause temporary pain but will strengthen future prospects.
The oil spill is not a good thing. It’s really bad for the fishes. The ensuing blame game is bad for the rest of us. When did every accident become an evil conspiracy? An investigation is certainly warranted to better the process of oil drilling in deep water. In congress, however, the issue is not a big oil spill but big oil companies and their evil profit. I am confident that BP will do everything they can to fix this spill. It is laughable to see the debate in Washington. I can’t wait to see Barney Frank put on scuba gear, dive to the bottom of the Gulf, and give his engineering solution. He is just another Harvard lawyer hoping to get a lot of mileage from this issue. It won’t be long until we hear about the bonus given to the BP CEO. This does not hurt or help my small business.
As always small business is left out of any discussion. If the press would put their lens on the small companies (none on Wall Street) that can hire people, we might get out of this economic mess. It is time to highlight the guys that change our oil and grease rather than big oil companies and Greece.
Tags: big government, greece, oil spill, politicians, press, small business