WARNING! POLITICAL RANT

People are disgusted with politics as usual. I’m one of them. Here’s my latest rant. This week Peter Diamond was one of the winners of the Nobel Prize for Economics. That’s quite an accomplishment. His work led the other two winner to investigate and explain why employers and employees sometimes have difficulty connecting. Seems to me that’s an important piece of work right now with high levels of unemployment.  

Dr. Diamond has been nominated by the President as a Governor on the Federal Reserve Board. At his hearing he explained: “In all my central research areas, I have thought about and written about the risks in the economy and how markets and government can combine to make the economy function better for individuals.” That sounds like the sort of knowledge we ought to have at high levels in the government. Oh yes, Paul Bernanke, the present head of the Federal Reserve was one of Dr. Diamond’s students.  

The nomination still has not been voted on in the Senate because Senator Shelby put a “hold” on it. Here’s the explanation of a hold that I found.  "hold - An informal practice by which a Senator informs his or her floor leader that he or she does not wish a particular bill or other measure to reach the floor for consideration. The Majority Leader need not follow the Senator's wishes, but is on notice that the opposing Senator may filibuster any motion to proceed to consider the measure."  HOLD

So a hold is a threat to filibuster an action. And with that threat, one Senator can block any nominee. Earlier this year senator Shelby blocked 70 nominations.

I don’t know if Peter Diamond is a good candidate for the Federal Reserve. The Senate Banking Committee approved him by a vote of 16-7 back in July. So why can’t the Senate just vote yes or no on him? Why can one person tie up the work of the government like this? I heard that there are 200 nominees for various offices that are on “hold.”  

I hate this political maneuvering that uses parliamentary tricks to prevent things from getting done. What is so bad about honest, out in the open votes yea or nay? I have the same reaction to these “ear marks” that get slipped into bills without going through proper hearings and waste millions of dollars on dumb stuff.

And I am also tired of the dingbat candidates for office who are talking about cutting a billion from prisons and a billion from schools, but refuse to say exactly how that is going to work. Whose going to guard the prisoners? Whose going to teach the kids? Maybe the prisoners are going to teach the kids. That would teach those prisoners to commit crimes. Stop talking in election slogans and give me some solid proposals that add up properly.

STOP PLAYING POLITICS AND GET THINGS DONE FOR THE SAKE OF THE PEOPLE, ALL THE PEOPLE, NOT JUST THE FEW ON TOP!!!!!!

Sorry. Got carried away. Election Season gets me worked up.

In all seasons, may the Lord bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne


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