Historically, Congress has always ranked very low in public opinion polls on the issue of trust. If memory serves, it is somewhere below the proverbial used car salesmen\u2026 although, after the antics of Democrats in Congress recently, I feel we should apologize to used car salesmen for comparing them to Congressmen.<\/p>\n
Democrats in the U.S. Senate have just proven they\u2019re happy to let families suffer as long as it means a victory in their quest for power. <\/p>\n
The House Democrat Whip, Katherine Clark, recently told the truth accidentally when she slipped-up, admitting that letting American families suffer would give the Democrats political \u201cleverage.\u201d <\/p>\n
Not even trying to hide it anymore, the Democrat Whip actually said: \u201cI mean, shutdowns are terrible, and of course, there will be families that are going to suffer\u2026 But it is one of the few leverage times we have,\u201d<\/p>\n
That means families of military members, federal law enforcement officers, families in need of food assistance, small business owners who could lose their businesses, and infants in need of diapers and baby food\u2026 can all go \u201cpound sand\u201d while you\u2019re being used as pawns in a political game, according the House Democrat Whip. <\/p>\n
And why are you being made to suffer? <\/p>\n
Let me quote Speaker of the House Mike Johnson: So that Democrats can win the battle to give \u201cfree\u201d healthcare benefits to illegal aliens, paid for with your taxes. <\/p>\n
That takes some nerve.<\/p>\n
At least a used car salesman sells you the car, not the oil spot.<\/p>\n
But what I really find nervy is that while Congress plays games with the American people\u2019s paychecks, Congressmen merrily continue on collecting their paychecks and Cadillac-level taxpayer funded healthcare.<\/p>\n
Rules for thee, but not for me. Money for me, but not for thee. <\/p>\n
To me, the solution is simple: Members of Congress should not receive a paycheck or health insurance during any government shutdown. If Congress was forced to abide by the same rules that apply to the rest of us, I have no doubt government shutdowns would suddenly come to a screeching halt.<\/p>\n
But the problem is bigger than with just the shutdown.<\/p>\n
Managing our money is Congress\u2019 primary responsibility. And yet, if we managed our personal money as poorly as Congress manages our tax money, we\u2019d be viewing the world through the bars of a jail cell. <\/p>\n
Congress hasn\u2019t passed a budget in ages. When it blows through spending each year with a shortfall\u2026 no problem, it just passes a \u201ccontinuing resolution\u201d to keep spending more. Income doesn\u2019t cover expenses? No problem, just go further in debt and print more money. (Actually, it\u2019s so bad, Treasury doesn\u2019t even bother anymore to print money for debt, it just hypothesizes \u201cdigital\u201d debt. Remember the imaginary money you used as a child to pay for purchases? Sort of like that, but \u201cdigital.\u201d But the inflation we suffer as a result of the debt is very real, unfortunately.)<\/p>\n
So, I have an even better idea: No Member of Congress should be paid in any year there is an unbalanced budget to until they pass a budget. <\/p>\n
No more collecting paychecks while passing \u201ccontinuing resolutions\u201d instead of a budget. And hopefully, that budget needs to be balanced in most years. If you aren\u2019t doing your job, you shouldn\u2019t expect to be paid. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s time we change the rules for Congress so \u201cwhat\u2019s good for thee\u201d also applies to \u201cwe.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 Jim Oberweis is an announced candidate for Congress, seeking to represent District 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Historically, Congress has always ranked very low in public opinion polls on the issue of trust. If memory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-28339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}