I Quit You

The recent debacle in Washington, despite its potential to send an already precarious worldwide economic climate into a cataclysmic tail spin from which we will never return, has been, in a weird way, refreshing. In early August Congress proved beyond a shadow of a doubt to the entire world what most of us have assumed was true for quite some time: It’s bad. It’s bad at what it does; it’s full of bad people making bad decisions for bad reasons. It’s just really, really, terrible. So, one might ask, how is that refreshing?

Think about it this way. Have you ever dated someone whom you suspected was also dating other people behind your back? You heard rumors and what not, but you couldn’t actually prove it. You had your suspicions, but there didn’t seem to be quite enough evidence to call them out on it.

Well, guess what? It turns out the rumors are all true. Congress really is a dirty tramp.

But then again, how is the clear knowledge that our officials have been cheating on us, selfishly doing what’s best for them and their constituents instead of what’s best for the nation as a whole, refreshing?

At least now we can dump them. We can break up with them without any remorse, knowing that we gave them multiple chances to shape up and walk right. They just couldn’t do it. The time has come for us, as a nation of scorned citizens, to divorce our so-called leaders.

Every. Single. One of them.

Imagine the message we could send to Washington next November if every single incumbent was fired and replaced by their opponent, regardless of party affiliation. What if every single person running for reelection was told, “Nope, no, I don’t think so. Not again. Not this time, Scooter. You had your chance. You had your two year, four year, six year or more stint, and quite frankly, you just kind of sucked it up out there. We’re going to replace every single one of you until you do it right. Until you figure out how to work together and create legislation that doesn’t make us all look like a bunch of reject Hanna-Barbara cartoon characters, you’re back to actually working for a living like the rest of us. Oh, and thanks for initiating the credit downgrade, too. That was real nice. Now we’re tied with Belgium, you know, so that’s cool. Asses.”

Now, statistically speaking, many of you will not vote at all the next chance you get, and that is in itself a major part of the problem. And, many of you who do vote will be tempted to once again vote along party lines, as if that will somehow magically solve the problem. (Like it’s magically solved the problem every other election.) “Oh, if we could just get all those mean Republicans out of office, or all those idiot Democrats, then we could really get something done.” No, that’s not the point. Every time one party has control of all the pieces something dumb happens, like we get a thousand-plus page social program we can’t afford, or we end up invading a country without a convincing reason.

This is not about getting the right political party into power. This is not a Republican issue or a Democrat issue. This is an issue of political fortitude. This is about making extremely difficult decisions with the nation’s future in mind, not with whether or not your actions will get you reelected. In case you haven’t heard, we are over 14 trillion dollars in debt. If we cannot find the willpower to seriously combat this economic swamp monster, our way of life ends. The only reason we can carry around this kind of ridiculously large tab is because enough of the world has always assumed America was a safe bet. The dollar has been the world’s reserve currency since the end of the Second World War.

As of right now, thankfully, it still is. The day that lovely little fiscal benefit ends, however, our deficit spending habit ends. Our habit of borrowing money to fight two wars at the same time ends. Our habit of borrowing money to pay entitlements like social security and Medicare ends. Our stupid habit of merely printing more money to pay our bills ends, because people are going to stop taking it, and us, seriously.

Republicans are right. Simply raising taxes won’t solve this dilemma. America has a very serious spending problem, and if we’re serious about solving it for the sake of our children and grandchildren, we absolutely have to cut wasteful spending. But to pretend as though you can begin to pay off 14 trillion dollars and still function without seriously reforming your revenue stream is just asinine. Our tax rates are about as low as they’ve been in half a century. As much as I hate to say it and as much as I know people don’t want to hear it, you have to create more revenue. The end.

People will lament, “But I didn’t cause this problem. Why should I have to pay for it?”

This is a valid argument, at least until you get into the third grade. But not causing a problem does not give you the moral authority to pretend as though you don’t have to at least try to fix it for the sake of the common good. Look at it this way. Suppose I have a crack in the foundation of my house. I didn’t build the house, and I’m the fourth person to live here since it was built. I certainly did not cause the crack in my foundation. But if I don’t fix the crack, it will get worse. At the very least, it will make my home more difficult to sell some day. At the worst, the crack gets so bad my house falls down, killing me and my family.

But I didn’t cause this problem, right? Why should I have to pay for it? Good question. We need to answer it before it’s too late.