Association Of Village Idiots

From Chuck Howard “The Token Yank”

2009-10-19

Is your self esteem running a bit high lately? Do you need something to knock it down a peg or two? I have the perfect remedy for you. It’s called American politics.

We all probably know of individuals in our lives who are two faced. The kind that will tell you how great you are then turn around and trash you to your friends. How about the ones who go a step further and do it to your face?

What am I getting at? Let me explain. Some of you reading this may be living in other countries but, you surely know about the economic downturn we have been going through recently. Unless you live in a remote region of the world it has likely affected you in one way or another.

I was listening a few weeks ago to a major Chicago AM radio station while driving to a family members house. The commentator said that the total bill to the taxpayer of the Economic Stimulous package may end up being in the neighborhood of 12 Trillion dollars. That is the money we will end up paying to rescue General Motors the banks and countless other “too big to fail” corporations. A rather large amount don’t you agree? The fact that many of the corporations we are bailing out are still giving multi-million dollar bonuses to the top level executives is enough to make me sick. But wait this gets even better.

The politicians are the ones who decided for whatever reason that this was a good value for our tax dollars.

A few weeks later I was reading in the news and now have seen in various places that some politicians are shocked that healtcare for all Americans could cost us 1 trillion dollars over the next ten years. Now let’s not even get into the debate about the plan itself that will surely come in time. Let’s just look at the bare statements and compare.

Corporate welfare for people who make bad decisions and bankrupt our country is worth 12 trillion but the health of individual Americans is only worth less than ten percent of that. I kind of always knew my level of value was much lower than those that fly the politians out for golf games in corporate jets. I just never heard it put so bluntly before. With a dollar and cent value none the less.

Maybe next time around a few more of us can get up out of our easy chairs and show them how much we value them. I think the unemployment line is a good start. Let the politicians see how we value them. With dollar and cents tags to boot.

Chuck Howard