I think that America is starting to get it. Please watch this video of Louisiana congressman breaking down during hearing on oil spill.
As he very adequately says, “these are not just Louisiana’s wet lands, they are America’s wet lands”
Even though the economy is slowly starting to recover from the excesses of spending of the George W. Bush administration (and the equally complicitous Congress), we are still far from out of the woods. The economy is in pain, in addition to the overspending, due to poor financial market regulation which destroyed several top-notch financial firms such as Lehman Brothers (who also appeared to break some standard accounting laws and best practices). The government responded to help these big institutions because they were “too big to fail.”
Let’s face it – there should be no such thing as “too big to fail.” Most of us work for companies that are not in that category. If our employers screw up and the company goes down the tubes then we will individually hurt and perhaps the micro-economy around that company will hurt a bit but for the most part the US GDP won’t even see the speed bump. This is the way that it should be – screw up and fail then just pick yourself up and get on with life.
Long-time US Senator Arlen Specter will not be returning next term! This is a true win for Americans!
I don’t have a huge problem with Mr. Specter on his voting record. He typically was a pain in the ass for everyone and it appeared that over the years, no one controlled him. My problem is the game that he played to avoid the voters in Pennsylvania. About a year ago, Senator Specter realized that his Republican base had dwindled considerably and he would probably not win a primary contest. Not wanting to put his career at the stake of these voters, Sen. Specter switched parties and said he was a Democrat. Yesterday, the Democrat Party voters rejected Mr. Specter as their candidate to run for the Senate seat.
Of course, Mr. Specter could still run for Senate. He could say that all parties are bad and run as an independent. He does not appear to have the ambition to do that based on this video clip.