Sometimes I wonder (written September 2011)

I wonder how many of you remember studying how our government works. The President does not have control. There are three branches - legislative, judicial & executive. The President is in the executive branch and can only try to influence the legislative branch. The legislative branch has two components - Senate and House. For anything to get accomplished compromises have to be made and the various lobbies appeased. Notice that the American public is not a part of the process. Once the politicians are elected, they start campaigning (i.e. raising campaign funds) by making nice with the people who have money. In general, the American public is not the source of that money so we are ignored except for one thing. In this age of 24 hour news, Twitter, viral videos, etc. The politicians make a big production out of everything to keep themselves in the public eye. They want to get their sound bites out to the public. This is just another example of the continual campaigning - only for votes instead of money. Our country is in the state it is because of bad decisions made over a number of years. We didn't get here starting from 2008's elections. Tough issues have been either ignored or so over-politicized that no serious or meaningful discussions have occurred or decisions reached. Both the rise of the Tea Party and the election of President Obama are indicative of the hope of various segments of the American public for change. Except for the words of our president, I have heard little that is rational or constructive coming from our elected 'leaders'. Finally, there are some intelligent leaders from the business community stepping forward. They are asking for tax increases on the highest income class. I find it hard to believe that anyone believes that 'trickle-down' economics is valid. I'd look at the politicians paychecks to see why the Bush tax cuts got extended. Another issue brought up was that gas prices should be lower. I disagree. They should be higher. We waste so many energy resources in this country. We need to face the fact that we need more mass transit and less overall consumption.