Saturday, July 07, 2012

It's Only Money

What is it Everett Dirksen said?  "A billion here, a billion there,  pretty soon you're talking about real money."  I'd say so.

How is it that last month 80,000 jobs were supposedly created and 85,000 people went on the disability roles?  This pretty much negates the jobs created and adds an additional burden to the already overly burdened tax payers who pay those disability benefits.   I'm trying to make some sense out of the dollars here and seem not to be grasping it.

The official figure for  the unemployment rate remains at 8.2 percent.  In reality it's much higher but reporting that would make the administration's attempts at fixing our economic woes even more dismal.

So how is it that this President set the billion dollar goal for campaign fund raising?  Man, that's a lot of money to get oneself elected.  On the other hand he is failing miserably.  He's out there pleading for cash.  Even to the extent he'd like you to have your wedding guests contribute to his campaign rather than give you a gift! That might indicate people don't think he deserves another term to waste even more of our money.

On the other hand Mitt Romney is hauling it in.  In June alone he raised $100,000,000.  One month!  Do you find it difficult to believe that we as a people have that sort of expendable income to give to political candidates? No one is worth that kind of money even when freely given by others.

I can't help but think what that kind of money could be used for in our ailing economy.  How many jobs would $100,000,000 fund for how long?  What's more a billion!

Something is very wrong with this picture.  Our priorities are all screwed up.  We shell out millions upon millions to people we know are a crap shoot at best yet the charity drives are running at full tilt.  Even they don't want used items anymore; new or 'gently' used coats for the local winter coat drive.  Come on.  Look at the economy!  If kids get a new coat they're going to wear it until it falls apart and even then it will most likely be patched up and handed down to the next in line!  How many are able to shell out for a new coat for a coat drive?

That having been said, however, even a fraction of that campaign cash could get new coats for every youngster in the country with money left over.  It seems to me a far better cause than pouring it into campaign coffers.  After all, no matter who wins, there are a lot of us who will still be left out in the cold!




2 comments:

marlu said...

Today I completely agree with you. I don't mean that to sound sarcastic - just some days I don't!

All the campaign money should not be raised for campaigns!

mln

Mari Meehan said...

Marlu, if I only had readers that agree with me I'd have even fewer than I do! When I hit a chord where we do agree it goes to the point we will all never agree on everything but if we do on some things it's a start. And it's that start, as abstract as this may seem, that made this country possible.