C-Span

So today, I was watching C-Span, the original one that shows proceedings in the US House of Representatives. The thing that struck me the most is how much they talk for how little gets said. This is not in any way a partisan observation, as, regardless of what party the Representative belongs to, they all seem to have a remarkable ability to talk on and on, without actually getting anything said. You really should tune in sometime and see how long you can watch them go on without actually doing anything. It's really kind of amazing. It also is good to get a glimpse of how the House does business. Of course we also get to see how so many of them really don't take their own stand on anything, but just go along with party lines, time and time again. I realize that this is the heart of politics, but really, it shouldn't be. What we really have elected these people for is to do the business of the country, and do things for us, the people that elected them, not to uphold everything that their party does, and fight for ideology only. They all talk a good game, saying things about how the people in their districts are working so hard and having trouble making ends meet, and how it is getting worse with taxes going up, and then they vote to spend money on all sorts of things, mostly things that are all about bringing money back to their home districts so that they have something to point to to get them re-elected. The thing that kills me is how they will always use the very same arguments regardless of whether they are trying to support or oppose a spending increase. Somehow the fact that taxes are too high, and we have trouble making ends meet can be used to support the increase of spending, I'm still scratching my head about this one. One of them today even made a snotty comment about how nobody likes to pay their taxes, but he failed to mention the fact that Members of Congress make considerably more per year than the average American citizen. They seem to think that we are somehow under the impression that they have a clue as to the problems that normal people face in every day life. Sadly far too many of the people that have been elected to Congress are grossly out of touch with the daily life of the American people. Unfortunately it's very difficult to get anyone who does really get it, and would try to do the right thing, to even run for office. For the most part, that kind of person is off doing something useful with their life.

One thing we need to do is to try to get people on board with electing real, down to Earth people, who could actually work for us and try to get stuff done.