Ignorance of the law(makers)

Has a group of people paid nearly $175,000 a year plus benefits ever been so consistently disappointing as the US Congress?  I imagine professional sports fans could be disappointed with their team for years (Cincinnati Bengals) and those guys make way more per year, but those players can't, no matter how bad they perform, cost you your job, your retirement or your peace of mind.

Today, October 16, 2013, to much media fanfare, the US Senate agreed to pay the bills it and the House of Representative had already incurred.  Before the bills get paid though, the House of Representatives, replete with the Burn The House Down Party, has to agree to the plan.  

A shutdown, slimdown, slowdown, downtown, clown around, vacation-because-they-get-back-pay- furlough did nothing positive for any American.  In this case, really, nothing.  It did not change US policy on any point.  It created no new rallying point for Americans.  It did nothing to engage Americans as a whole in a positive way.  It did allow for a lot of criticism and hate spewing back and forth.  The edge of default dance has weakened the credit of America to Americans and to foreign buyers of American debt.  Count on that.  Interest rates will rise and the Federal Reserve will be powerless to stop them.

The name calling and bashing of ideas on the news and the Internet, from both sides of the ACA/Obamacare crowd, have been frighteningly reminiscent of the vitriol that caused the US to have a civil war.  The north is again pitted against the south on many issues.  It's fitting that the first black president is under fire from a bunch of white, southern men, for advancing what he seems to believe is a right inherent in a civilized nation - decent, affordable health care for all.

One has to wonder though, if someone has not watched this drama unfold on TV or in the news, will they be affected by what happens on Capitol Hill?   I don't know.  It seems that for all the sturm and drang cranked out by the finance talking heads, the world would not stop if the Congress failed to agree on this point. 

My sense is that the sun would come up tomorrow no matter what happened today.  Tomorrow may be better or worse than today, but it's going to come.  I hope that come November 2014, a Wednesday dawns with 355 brand new congressmen and senators and leaves 66 senators quaking in their wingtips.