Today’s guest post is by our pal and regular TPC contributor, David Garber.
Something Stinks — Oh Yeah, it’s Congress
Sequestration. The big afterthought proposed as nothing more than a gimmick a few years back and now the Republican House governance is trying to enforce it. It’s kind of like making a bet, then welshing on it and asking a court to rule in your favor. Gambling debts are unenforceable. And isn’t that really what this latest game called sequestration is all about — a lost bet? Kind of “Kick the Can” which became kick and miss and finally kick my ass.
So why not stop playing games, stop all the nonsense and go back to work? If this whole charade was meant to be taken seriously, then why is it the Budget Control Act of 2011 so filled with gimmicks. And now these same party leaders who put this BS into effect are trying to play more games with it. Don’t they know that playing with feces makes you stink?
And here’s the irony: one of the few exemptions from sequestration is Congressional salaries… Did you know that? Their pay is sacrosanct. It can’t be touched — but hundreds of thousands of tax payers may lose their jobs or be work furloughed with no such protections. Which elected official wants to handle the question of how that got written into the budget control act?
Maybe the stench of Congress will finally get the Fabreeze treatment and go away peacefully — but if not, the people who will be paying off the Republican and Democrats lost bet with their jobs and social safety nets will remember this come 2014 — when we band together to “Dump the Chump” and start with a clean slate of legislators. Crap on me once, shame on you. Crap on me twice and … well, leave it to “Dump the Chump.” As the umpire in a ball game would say on a player’s ejection, “You’re outta here!”
For the past 25 years, David Garber has been serving as the show runner and or writer on some of television’s biggest hits… Saved By The Bell, Power Rangers, 227, Bill Cosby Show and many other network series. His writing and producing have also netted David two very prestigious awards:the PRISM AWARD and the TV CRITICS AWARD – TV SPECIAL OF THE YEAR. Currently he’s authoring a short story series called “A Few Minutes With…”
“Everybody hates this upcoming made-up crisis, which is good, because there is a seriously simple solution to this universally reviled, universally acknowledged as dumb, thing. We could… not do it. Crazy, right? Congress has the ability to just not do it. Just turn the darn thing off. It’s very simple. And it is one very clear thought that is missing from this debate. It is the elephant-slash-donkey in the room. Am i missing something here? If we all think it would be bad for the country, why don’t we not do it?“
Today’s guest post is by our pal and regular TPC contributor, David Garber.
Dump the Chump
Cancer. Malignancy. Tumors. It’s all a horrible thought; a nightmare for those who’ve gone through it. And a fear for those who have not.
Fortunately medicine has provided some miracles and scores of individuals have been cured. Today America sadly has been diagnosed with a tumor and we won’t know if it’s malignant or benign until it’s removed. But it must be removed if we’re going to survive. This has to be done before the medicos announce it’s become inoperable. The procedure is painless. In the O.R. t’s called “Dump the Chump” and it’s not done with lasers or radiation. And fortunately for anyone afraid of needles, none are needed. It’s done painlessly with our vote.
Just like with any cancer removal, some healthy tissue will be lost to make sure we’ve removed ALL of the dangerous and diseased matter. The recovery time will be quick though and afterwards, pathology can examine carefully the removed tumor and perhaps, if there is some health tissue, it can be kept and returned when the patient is healed. But until then, it’s collateral damage.
The longer we wait to perform this surgery, the more dangerous the procedure and the riskier the operation. And if we wait too long, out plight becomes that of victims, too far gone to recover. Then we’re left to languish like the tuna pulled aboard a fishing boat, caught in the harvesters’ net, flopping around, gasping for a breath, until we die.
Fortunately there is a hole in the net that’s caught us. Our illness is still curable but requires everyone pulling together. The cancer is our Congress. They’re dysfunctional and malignant. They are acting out of petty self interest, not the well being of the patient (The United States). The results of the test are in — doctors call it sequestration carcinoma.
So now the cure. It’s a movement. It’s called “Dump the Chump!”
Surgery is necessary and the scalpel is our vote. But just like with that malignant tumor, we may have to lose some healthy cells along with the damaged. We must vote out EVERY INCUMBENT. Dump the chump. They all go — the good with the bad because selective surgery has been tried and it’s sadly not worked. Who we replace them with is up to us — a Republican with another Republican, or Republican with a Democrat — it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t mean voting for the other party. It means voting out EVERYONE because they cannot function together and the patient is paying the price.
We all blame someone else’s representative — rarely our own. “Oh, that’s the crazy guy from Kentucky, or that radical from New York or he/she’s just like the rest of them in Missouri or California.” But let’s stop kidding ourselves… It’s all of them. What feeds this cancer? Power and the disease’s confidence that “We, the people” aren’t strong enough to wrest it from them. Imagine you’re potentially dying and the doctors all take a 10 day break before operating, allowing the patient to suffer? That’s what our Congress is doing right now with our sequestration carcinoma. They’re on break while we the patient are flopping helplessly on the tuna boat deck.
2014 is the next big election — the next opening in the operating theater. So let’s do what we can do. Vote. And for whom? Anyone NOT already part of the malignancy.
Want to get healthy again? We can! Dump the Chump. If enough people chant along, “Dump the Chump”, you’ll see a lot more positive action while we ride this out. But the most important thing is we rid ourselves of the tumor. Let’s get healthy. Let’s Dump the Chump.
I then asked David this:
“EVERY incumbent? I love Bernie Sanders and Alan Grayson, for example.”
Then, just to be sure, I asked if he meant his “EVERY INCUMBENT” line literally, or if he wanted me to edit.
David’s response:
As I said, this situation is a malignancy — some healthy tissue would be cut if nothing more than a precaution to make sure all of the bad had been excised. But like I also said, after removal, some can be replanted. You mention two wonderful representatives, well senator and a representative, but sadly, without a clean sweep — the point of my meme — there’s never going to be a meaningful change. All the voters will pick their favorites and we’ll end up returning all the crazies along with those few who serve us so well. Look, we lived without Alan G for a term — and he’s back. Hopefully Florida will return him again, someday.
Reality — this movement I propose won’t catch on. But if the threat and rumor do, then you never know. Many successful movements began with one person — in this case me. And I’ll promote Dump the Chump every chance I get so that maybe some day the fear will get into our Congress that election doesn’t mean you stop working for the people, it means you FINALLY START working for the people… and party be damned.
They must do what’s right — not what morons like, McConnell and Boehner and Cantor tell them to do. Look, the Dems have their black sheep as well. But when you listen to Rachel Maddow, as she pointed out last night, there’s nothing stopping both parties from just dropping the sequester with a simple vote. They all think it’s wrong — or a majority do — and yet they do nothing but use this and the threat of harm to we citizens as a ploy.
We need legislators — not clones or robots… I’m not a chip. I’m a person. And these officials could do something about it besides taking a break. Hell, they just started work last month and already recessed for a week before this one. The Dems even proposed passing up the break (of course they knew the Republicans would not accept that offer) but one could argue they were willing to stay and face the work they were elected to do.
I think the point is unless everyone’s vulnerable, or else no one really is.
For the past 25 years, David Garber has been serving as the show runner and or writer on some of television’s biggest hits… Saved By The Bell, Power Rangers, 227, Bill Cosby Show and many other network series. His writing and producing have also netted David two very prestigious awards:the PRISM AWARD and the TV CRITICS AWARD – TV SPECIAL OF THE YEAR. Currently he’s authoring a short story series called “A Few Minutes With…”
I sometimes want to mute the Tee Vee Machine when Chris Matthews interviews certain guests, but I also think he’s a likable man with a lot of good things to say. In fact, Matthews is a hoot when he’s a guest himself, especially on Real Time with Bill Maher.
His “Let Me Finish” segments are most often the best part of Hardball, and this one in particular is worth sharing. A lot.
“Let me finish tonight with this. I think the difference between the Democrats and Republicans is getting as wide as the Grand Canyon. Watch how they do it. President Obama wants to keep the government going. Pretty simple, huh? Republicans threaten to stop it. It’s relentless. The fiscal abyss, the debt ceiling the sequester, the end to the continuing resolution. Different words, different deadlines all detonate the same explosion.
“They threaten to crash the government if they don’t like the way it’s doing something, if they don’t like who the American people have elected as president. Isn’t that what the Republicans did back in the old days? If they didn’t like a government somewhere, Guatemala, Iran, the Dominican Republic, Chile, they just brought it down.
“Guess what: Republicans are now using the same tactic here at home. If they don’t like who we’ve elected president, they find some way to undermine the government, discredit its leaders, whatever to destroy it. We are using in this country the same old cold war CIA tactics to destabilize our own country.
“Look at the impact the constant threats to shut down the government have been having on public confidence. It’s all in the ratings. It’s undermining it, making people forever nervous about the basic ability of America to even have a running government. Is that patriotic? I don’t think so.”
Again, this is one of those commentaries that should not be ignored.
Close your eyes tightly and try to imagine the Democrats not caving. I dare you. Every time I try, I get so-o-o close, then bam! They cave. I really need to have a talk with my imagination and fix that. Maybe this will help, via The Hill:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday there is a chance that the government could shutter at the end of this month.
Criticizing House Republicans for the disaster relief provisions in their budget bill, Reid told reporters, “We’re not going to cave on this.” [...]
Tuesday saw both parties accusing the other of playing games with legislation to keep the government funded through Sept. 30.
Here we go again. Now what? What’s causing all the ruckus this time?
At issue is increased funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help a number of states recover from various natural disasters.
That ‘splains everything. Damn socialist commie Marxists, don’t they understand that people have the freedom to die, or whatever, on their own?
Pence is usually smarter than this which worries me a bit. The tape never lies (at least short ones like this that can’t be O’Keefed). Think Progress has the text of the weasel trying to lie his way out.
I listened as the TV news dee jay told me how relieved members of our military are that their paychecks won’t be delayed, now that a government shutdown has been averted. I listened as the news dee jay reminded me that many of those same people would have been in real trouble if they would have had to wait even an extra week or two, because they’re strapped, and wouldn’t have been able to afford food, rent, or house payments.
And then I wondered why our military has to fret and hand wring about that when private contractors get paid so handsomely for their work. And I wondered why we don’t pay our service members more, so that if they were to have to endure a shutdown, they could be less concerned than they were this week.
And maybe we’d even recruit more men and women if they knew that, you know, they would be more amply rewarded for their hard work and bravery.
Then I had to stop listening to the TV news dee jay, because my blood pressure was undoubtedly rising to unsafe levels.
That was today’s Shallow Thought. Thank you for wading in.
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