We’ve managed to survive the tech bubble, banking bubble, and the real estate bubble, yet another bubble is more destructive and something which should have exploded long ago.
Take just one week in the life of our Congress and President. When it came to protecting our homeland, after all the passion play and finger-pointing Congress could at first only legislate funding for one week. It later got it together to fund the department for the rest of the fiscal year. This is a recurring theme, elections and promises of bipartisanship notwithstanding. Yet this lurching from crisis to crisis has been going on for years. Now we again face the promise of running into fiscal Armageddon if the debt limit isn’t raised in the coming weeks. Anesthetized by who knows what, the public can’t relate, and with good reason.
What do our elected officials really do? Just look at the last week. Congress and the President knocked themselves criticizing, supporting, boycotting or attending a Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech, otherwise content-less but for the incessant lauding, one instance after another, America’s historical help for his country. But let’s not cut short those who attended the Joint Session. It takes stamina and courage to repeatedly stand up and clap in lockstep, like puppets on a string. The knees give out and the hands grow red. I got dizzy watching.
Later in the week, Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland gave us a hint of what pols primarily do; dial for dollars. After decades, she is calling it quits Others continue to thrive in the environment. Just look at all those Presidential wannabees traveling to all corners of the country groveling at the feet of billionaires with their narrow self-serving agendas. Rumor has it that Chris Christy has been Governor of the State of New Jersey. A total embarrassment after bridge-gate, not to mention the millions in taxpayer funds he paid connected lawyers in an attempt to distance himself from the imbroglio, his absence from the state could only be plus. To be fair we need to focus on another New Jersey “public servant” who was in the news last week; this one a Democrat. The promise of indictment of Senator Menendez comes from his tireless advocacy and intervention for a “friend”, not to mention the gifts and private plane trips. Guys like Menendez and Christy don’t deign to go commercial when it comes to air travel. First class and government air travel are beneath them. Gotta have others’ private planes notwithstanding the ties that may bind.
Senator Menendez and his colleagues live encased in a bubble funded by “OPM” a/k/a other people’s money. Virtually unlimited government expense accounts are supplemented by campaign accounts, and affiliated non profits which can be the recipient of government grants. Politicians remain in the bubble if they get indicted. It’s not a problem at all. Just fire up the legal defense fund and collect more“OPM”. No sweat. Menendez has already spent some $1.2 million of OPM prior to the indictment. What public officials haven’t figured out yet is getting someone else to go to jail for them when they get convicted. But give them time.
The end of the week saw early adjournment to enable over a hundred members of Congress could fly at taxpayer expense to Selma for a feel-good celebration, innumerable selfies, and a rousing rendition of “We Shall Overcome”. I don’t mean to be a party pooper but, is this country so flush with cash that we can’t save a few bucks by sending a delegation to events of this sort? As a lawyer who lives largely by the contingent fee, I’d be happy with a small percentage. More fundamentally, with the exception of Congressman John Lewis, who barely survived the first Selma and had no time for selfies, those elected officials who attended the anniversary bear no conceivable resemblance to “reformers” let alone the original protestors.
Each with an army of staffers in Washington and at home those in Congress best resemble corporate CEO’s. Like those CEO’s and unlike America’s 99%, they live in a bubble. An endless array of junkets promises world travel and contacts. Aside from Capitol barbers, shoeshine guys, gyms, trainers, swimming pools and squash courts, they have the best health care, benefits and pension plans. And un-like the pension plans of working Americas that have largely been raided or eradicated by corporate executives and their thousand dollar an hour lawyers, Congressional pensions are bullet-proof.
One would think that a part-time legislative schedule should equate to a part time job, right ? Wrong. Those in Congress have healthy six figure salaries. Nevertheless, they don’t read legislation or write bills. Its all done by the special interests who fund them. Congress is Horatio Alger’s dream gig, the perfect job for one lacking any skills whatsoever. The only prerequisite is the ability to attract attention. And in our society, attention attracts money, which makes for more attention. It’s a nuclear chain reaction. This is where our pols truly excel. They are great at getting elected and totally lacking when it comes to governing. In the meantime, unwittingly or otherwise, they have pulled off a massive transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the uber rich or fund them. All the while they have little downside.
It’s a closed system and its high time that our elected officials, incompetent at best and corrupt at worst, have their bubbles pricked. Unlike the markets, its not going to happen by itself.
Photo by jmorgan90