Another one of my "Open Letters" to President Obama... And a Little Rant

Dear President Obama,

I have an idea to help you with the “sequester cuts” you’re hanging over the Republicans’ heads like a political piñata just waiting to explode all over the place. Mr. President, why don’t you pass an Executive Order that reduces the salaries of all Congressional representatives by fifty percent? That one act alone would provide the government with approximately $47 million (assuming all 535 of them make $175K annually), which should cover a fair portion of the money needed to secure the jobs of the first responders and other political pawns you’ve been trotting out as sacrificial lambs in your efforts to deride the opposition for your own expediency.

In fact, Mr. President, I believe you should publically ask each Congress-critter if they would be willing to sacrifice their entire salary for the duration of the current congress as a show of good faith. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see Nancy Pelosi squirm when you put her under the spotlight and asked her to do the right thing for the good of the nation? Or would such a display take away her “dignity?”

I mean, I would understand it if a few of the Freshman members of The House didn’t want to give up their salary; you politicians live large there in Washington D.C., and it would be tough for a newbie to “keep up” with the rest of you and your gaudy lifestyle. And if there’s one thing we do know, it’s that it is very important to come to town and fit in… keep a low profile and act like everyone else. Just ask Texas Senator Ted Cruz what happens if you’re new in town and you don’t keep a low profile…

And while we’re at it, Mr. President, why don’t you, sir, give up your salary for the next four years? I mean I know you are the man of the people and you can relate to us all so well, with that multi-million dollar income you have from all those book sales and all, and how you lived in a $200K condo while you and Mrs. Obama went to Ivy League schools and all... but Mr. President, leadership means setting an example, true? And wasn’t it you who once (or more than once, I can’t remember) told us we are all going to have to sacrifice a little… have some “skin in the game…” or something….

By the way, sir… how was that weekend golfing? Did you hear, Mr. President, that your lovely wife’s separate but equally expensive vacation tied up airspace over the Aspen, Colorado area? and I hear your vacation only cost us just short of one million dollars this time, sir.

You know the last time I went on a million dollar vacation and golfed with a professional golfer on a private course, Mr. President? Yeah, try never.

I’m so sick of the crap coming out of Washington, D.C. these days. It’s not just President Obama, although we did elect him to lead, not to go around the country bashing the political opposition (in between golf outings and trips to Hawaii) in an effort to secure his party’s continued success for decades to come. House Majority Leader John Boehner made a statement today that hits the nail on the head, and it’s what most of us have known and have been saying for a long time; America doesn’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. If we’re going to cut out the loopholes in the tax code – as we should, that extra revenue should go to debt reduction, not to growing more government. We’ve already given liberals their “revenues” at the turn of the year, which didn’t affect most of us as much as it did the most wealthy, but I know my paycheck got about $50 lighter every two weeks, but the national debt continues to rise…

The era of big government never really ended… it just hid for a while, sort of. But let’s be honest – from the days of Woodrow Wilson creating the Federal Reserve and “progressive” tax code, to FDR expanding government exponentially because America was in the midst of the crisis of the Great Depression (and we know how progressives feel about a good crisis), to LBJ blowing up the budget by promising retirees health care funded by a Ponzi scheme called Medicare, and a more massive “safety net” called Medicaid that has now become a primary source of income for many, to George W. Bush expanding that Medicare promise to retirees with a drug program larger than even the original Medicare itself… and let’s not forget what we have to go through just to get on an airplane these days and all the scandalous stories surrounding DHS… oh, and now we have “free” healthcare on the way for everyone, or so it seems… free healthcare! Woohoo!

In large part today, we don’t have leadership in Washington; we have politicians. Specifically, we have one politician, and we have a lap-dog media that does his bidding at every turn. After griping this past weekend about the lack of access to the Commander-in-Chief as he golfed with Tiger Woods at a private club in Florida, when The President finally appeared, the first question asked was “Who won?”

It used to be that in America, holding political office at the national level was an act of service. Clearly, the fundamental transformation of America is working out exactly as planned.