2008 Soap Box Archives

Tired Horse

I have written about this subject in the past but at the risk of being wearingly redundant, I'm going to whip this tired old horse one more time.

How many times have you heard a news report about some Congressman or Senator slipping an earmark or amendment into a bill being processed through one house of Congress or the other, that was so blatantly selfish, designed for nothing other than doing a favor for a friend or buying votes from a constituency and it made you mad enough to bite a railroad tie in two?

But even as your blood pressure goes up, and your respect for politicians goes even lower, you realize that there's not a dang thing you can do about it because the Congressman or Senator is from another state and there's no way you can vote him or her out of office.

How long is it going to take for the people of this nation to realize that the Congress and Senate are corrupt? It's an old boy's club they have built for themselves based on conniving and mutual back-scratching, and the only way to break up this dark fraternity is term limits.

Our system of government was not designed for career politicians. It was meant to be by the people and for the people, and when these old hacks go to Washington and stay for twenty or thirty years, they are so removed from what goes on in the streets of America they may as well be living on another planet.

A prime example is Alaska's Senator, Ted Stevens. As you may know, Stevens, who has served in the Senate for 40 years, was indicted this week on corruption charges. And for you cherry pickers who think I only criticize Democrats, you're wrong. Stevens is a Republican.

Now I'm not going to go ahead and convict the man without a trial, but Senator Stevens has been known for an abundance of earmarks for his state. The most blatant is probably the $400 million "bridge to nowhere" which would have been as long as the Golden Gate Bridge and taller than the Brooklyn Bridge to replace a $5 ferry ride to the Ketchikan Airport on Gravina Island. Stevens threatened to quit Congress if funds from his bridge were diverted to Hurricane Katrina relief.

Alaska's governor, Sarah Palin, canceled this monstrosity in 2007.

These career politicians are surrounded with lobbyists and influence peddlers and the only way they can stay around is to tow the party line, even if the party line is stupid and detrimental to America.

We desperately need to break up these cliques by limiting the amount of years these people can hold office. I personally think that Congressmen should be limited to four terms or eight years, and Senators should be limited to two four year terms, the same as a President.

They should serve their time and go home and go to work like the rest of us and let somebody fresh off the streets who knows what's happening now take their place.

This country is being systematically looted every time Congress goes into session by power-hungry old coots that haven't earned an honest living in forty years.

People, they are not going to do this to themselves, they're not about to get off the gravy train. It's going to take a concerted effort by We The People to get these flops out of Washington.

Do you honestly think that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have the good of this nation on their hearts? They're concerned with keeping their party in power by whatever means necessary.

But if they all had to go home every eight years they might actually start doing some things for the good of the country.

If there were less politicians who could run for office next term they wouldn't have to depend on the money from the left-wing greenies who don't want us drilling for oil or building nuclear power plants. They might actually do something for the other ninety percent of us who they ignore.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels

August 1, 2008