My political take

For those that are old enough, the title means something. For those who are not, look it up. It could mean something to you. The Cincinnati enquirer on April 7th had an article that made me go WTF!! It seems our esteemed elected officials that make the laws we abide by don’t seem to write them. You would think someone on their staff would write the bill. Wrong think again. Would it be a corporate lawyer, wrong answer. Well then who would write a bill? It would be a model bill. They come from think tanks, corporate entities and political action committees.

So your sitting Senator or Representative with their minimum $174,000 a year salary and at least a 23 person staff don’t come up with the laws in which we abide? So as a person that controls his budget along with his wife, lives within our means, and balance a budget every month, this makes no fiscal sense. You get paid that amount of money and we get, it seems nothing on our tax investment. What exactly are you folks doing in Washington D.C.?

The special interest groups and industrial groups are getting what they want. OK in some instances that is bad. I fully believe in the Capitalist model on the flip side. My focus is more on the fact our elected officials are not working and we pay them an absorbent amount of money do to “their job.”

Here is my take. Every election cycle we, the people need to delve deep into those who want to represent us. They come to us promising everything under the Sun, what do they deliver…..nothing. There is, after election a orientation for new Senators and Congressmen, would that orientation more or less be sit down and shut up? They say Washington D.C. is a grind, who is going to stand above it? We the people need to stand above it. Keep thinking people!

Obviously the horrible shooting spree in Christchurch is top of mind right now. It is again a senseless loss of life. Fifty families changed forever and three people who won’t ever get what they deserve. These people need hugs. These people need family. These people need closure. My home is in Cincinnati, I am 8564 miles away, I can’t help with anything substantial except to feel for these people. Thoughts and prayers do go to them and what follows is to your own family.

Here is my take. Some of our own politicians have shared their opinion on the shooting. The citizens of New Zealand don’t need to you to make it about the United States, they are dealing with burials and funerals. Here you go, for instance, AOC, you are now an ugly American. I have never been overseas but we have a reputation of being a know it all and try to make it all about us. We don’t know it all, they do need our emotional support, if they want it, so keep your ugly American mouth closed and use your new found platform to give thoughts and prayers.

Folks here is where I believe we can help ourselves. Our elected officials in the legislative branch pose the biggest impact we can have in the direction of the country.

Congress makes it’s own schedule. Since 2001 the average days worked has been 138. Now if you look online as to what they do besides those 138 days you can find things like spending time in their districts. Well I can tell you the two Senators from Ohio seem to have been missing in action. Every day I pass by a headquarters I suppose of (R) Steve Chabot, it has had no activity since before the last election. Our other Senator, (D) Sherrod Brown has been gallivanting around the country looking at the possibility of running for President. He concluded last week it would not be in his best interest.

Other fun facts for Congress. The House of Representatives can have 22 staff members and the Senate has no limit. Staff budgets are based on the population of each state. In 2009 an average of 23 staff members salaries cost us, the citizens of the United States, $1,043,384. So a line in the budget for the entire Congress staff is $558,210,440 million. In 2012 268 of the 535 members of Congress were millionaires. Let’s not forget once you are a member of Congress part of your retirement package is your salary for life. A regular old Senator or Congressman gets $174,000 for life. If you were Speaker of the House you would get $224,000, for life. In 2016 there were 216 retired members of Congress. This line item in the budget of the United States was $37,584,000 million.

Here is my take. In 1947 Congress passed the 22nd Amendment which limits the President to two terms. There needs to be term limits to members of Congress. It has already be proposed by Ted Cruz, my guess it will fall on deaf ears. We can no longer just let our representatives tell us that budget cuts need to fall on us, the citizens. It seems to me that they don’t live as equals to us. They can vote on their own raises, I never have had a job where I could give myself a raise. They have no accountability for any of their actions, in fact they have a $17,000,000 slush fund to pay off their indiscretions. We need to find those folks to represent us who are able to hold themselves accountable financially and personally. If they aren’t able to these things we should be able to as citizens have them fired from their job of representing us. Until next time.

One of President Trump’s campaign promises was to build the wall and have Mexico pay for it. Well I don’t think Mexico is going to pay for it. I believe the wall is what is needed on many fronts. President Nixon was the first to talk about the “War on Drugs” President Reagan also had his “War on Drugs.” Gee I think we have a reoccurring theme. So the seven Presidents since President Nixon could have done something as monumental as building the wall.

It took President Trump to declare a state of emergency to get the money he needed to build the wall. Nancy Pelosi in leading up to the emergency declaration said she would give him one dollar. Mrs. Pelosi says 90% of the drugs that come into the country get in from the ports of entry. She wanted any wall money devoted to the ports of entry for upgrades and more support.

Here is my take. I agree with stopping the drugs coming across the border and the illegal immigration. The money saved by the wall versus no wall would pay for itself. In doing so Mrs. Pelosi in essence would be able to get more resources for the ports of entry. If you take away the southern border as an option for getting illegal things in the country the ports would be the next logical step. It would be a win for both sides. Some can’t see past what is right in front of their faces.

I figure the first one should kind of give a little bit of who I am and how I got to the world of blogging.

Well, I live in Cincinnati with my wife of almost two years. We have been together almost ten years this time around. We dated for awhile 30 years ago, which makes me 50 years old.

We own our own business and have for six years. We are bread vendors so we get up really early to the point of 2:00 a.m. in the morning. We work five days a week until we finish so if it takes 12 hours to finish, you get the point. I have a restaurant background, 23 years in the business and my wife has a retail background, 20 years in that business.

When I moved to Ohio in 2009 it took 6 months to find a job, any job! The bills piled up so when I did find a job, I needed two. I worked 7 days a week for two and a half years until I got into the bread business. My wife and I busted our butts to first stay afloat then catch up and finally get a little ahead.

Now to the meat why I am here blogging. Everybody today is engaged with the world some how, some way. The political landscape is no different. In my opinion things on the left and right come across to the extreme view. No negotiating, no working together, just here is what needs to be done and this is the only way to do it! We the people do not seem to be included in the process. The people bringing the news to us come across as biased and with an agenda. Heaven forbid if you don’t agree with that view, you can be called a racist or bring violence to yourself.

I have thought of running for office a lot in the last few years. I still have a business to run. I am not politically connected. I am registered Independent. I don’t have the money and the time. Bottom line I think I would have to compromise my own personal integrity to try to make a difference in that arena. Thanks for reading, until next time.