A New York Times article describes Barack Obama’s budget, and details some of the political pressures against its proposed provisions. Reading such a treatise on the resistance to Obama’s initiatives makes one wonder how anyone could put much stock into the campaign rhetoric of a presidential candidate who must go head to head with the opinionated, ideological, reactionary, obstinate, and egocentric individuals who make up the US legislative branch. One against 535 is a rather lopsided contest. Who cares that the nation’s economy is in freefall, that the general mood of the populace is utter despair, and that most Americans see Congress as part of the problem? Reelection is first and foremost in the minds of politicians, not, apparently, the greater needs of the nation at large.
Our government is elected by the people and their policies should be in support for the people, but it appears otherwise. So for whom are they working for?
All too often they work to expand their own careers and to enlarge their personal worth.