I'm 56 and I've watched Congress closely for a long, long time. Today we're hearing members of Congress blaming the "greed" of Wall Street for the economic crisis we're in.
No one wants to talk about Republican deregulation or about Barney Frank praising Franklin Raines (Fannie Mae CEO) and defending Fannie and Freddie or about Chris Dodd stopping any attempt to regulate them.
In short, it was CONGRESS who created the atmosphere that led to the economic crisis, Congress who pushed the banking industry into unsafe and destructive mortgages, Congress who defended the dangerous credit extremes that led to this.
One Congressman stood in front of the cameras the other day and admitted that he didn't understand the current economic crisis completely. This was a member of the House Banking Committee!!!
And now Congress asks us to trust them to "fix" the problem??
That's like asking a child rapist to babysit your children.
It's not Wall Street that needs to be overhauled and rescued. It's the American people who need rescue. We need to wholesale replace every member of Congress, both the House and the Senate.
Bush's approval ratings stink. But ironically, as members of Congress condemn and attack Bush for incompetence their own approval rating is even lower. But you'd never know it listening to them. They act as if they actually think people respect and trust them.
No one trusts or respects Congressmen or Senators any longer. We hear stories of corruption, scandals, tax fraud, hiring of relatives, bribery and we just shrug it off as if it's routine and as if expecting anything else is silly. That tells you how low our respect for Congress has sunk in recent decades.
It's time to replace Congress entirely.
The American people need to send a clear message that in upcoming elections we will all vote AGAINST incumbents and FOR anyone who opposes them regardless of party affiliation.
Looking at the last 10-15 years of Congress I don't see a lot of difference between the parties any more. Both expand the size of government bureaucracies, both increase government intrusion in our lives, both increase spending, both think they know what's best for us, both treat the U.S. taxpayers with ill-concealed contempt and both think that the legal, moral and ethical codes the rest of us live by do not apply to them.
We revolted against King George because he ignored us and treated us with contempt and disdain. In what way is Congress any different?
