It’s no surprise to anyone that by and large, politicians are selfish and corrupt. So nobody should really be shocked about the whole furlough thing. And yet, here we are.
The “fiscal cliff” and “sequester” were supposed to be things soooooo bad that not even the childish differences between the only 2 parties in US politics could possibly allow to come to fruition. They had an idealistic vision that when presented with absolute worst case scenarios, these two groups that hate eachother would set aside their differences and create something everyone could agree on.
HA, because that would happen!
And yet, they let the two worst case scenarios happen. They let the things that would be so atrocious and devastating to the people and country, that nobody in their right mind would let it happen, well, happen.
So now we have “furloughs”… basically lots of unpaid days off by government paid employees. This happened across the board to every corner of every program Americans pay for. This included things like air traffic controllers and lawyers to name a few. And it’s not like anybody forgot that it would cause the flow of essential governmental services come to a grinding halt. That was the whole point. But now that it’s happened… Why the hell are people getting angry?
Well, not just people getting angry, but why are the idiots in congress reverting it for “essential” agencies and employees? Oh, I’m sorry, airlines got delayed because your congresspeople screwed up? You (the people) should be mad! But we should live with it until they fix things. That was the point of this entire exercise. Making concessions for some things that inconvenience us and letting other essential services slip into the void isn’t a solution. We’re in bad shape here, folks, and you can thank the people in charge. Don’t like it? Kick them out!
Now, I’m not saying we should just live with the furloughs, no… this was a stupid idea by stupid people and allowed to happen by even stupider people still. But I also don’t think it’s ok to allow certain areas to be given a pass while areas that don’t directly inconvenience people into a furor still suffer from paycuts.
Want to know an easy fix? See, your politicians don’t actually care about us. No, if they did, they wouldn’t have played chicken with the American economy and people who need to put food on the tables for their families. If you want politicians to do the “right thing”, you have to speak their language. That’s why, should we need them to come to a decision that effects thousands or millions of people, then instead of letting the people shoulder the burden like they always do, we should make the politicians carry the load! That’s right! No furloughs for or austerity for the people, rather withhold 20% of the congress’s pay for every time they do not come to a meaningful agreement. Let’s see how they like it! Then they can try again. Screw up 5 times and they get no pay until they figure it out.
Or we could just fire the whole bunch and put in people that can pass morality and IQ tests… That works too.
Sorry for the rant guys, but I’m getting really tired of our government leaders not doing their jobs.
Update:
Hey all, I’ve been pretty sick this last week so it might take me another one to get back up and running again. Sorry for the lack of comics, but hopefully I’ll get to start them again soon.
Welcome to the Second World. Trust me, a decade into this shit and you won’t give one fuck.
meh, I’m starting to get to the point where replacing the irrigation system with Mt.Dew sounds like a good idea…
Who’s that sexy rogue in the back?
It looks like he’s sad, but really he’s grinning under that mask because rogue’s are always awesome, and never get nerfed.
I dunno! I think he photobombed my comic! Don’t worry, I’ll fire up the photoshops and take care of that. >)
I think his awesomeness is too strong. I don’t think photoshop will be enough.
I agree that it was a stupid entirely preventable move…..But wasn’t the basic problem the fact that neither side wanted to cave because they knew it would piss their voters off?(stereotypically) Rep voters dont want congressmen who vote for higher taxes to give to moochers and Dem Voters dont want the rich to writhe in money while innocents suffer.
I think you need to take it a step further. Yes they might be just thinking for themselves….so they try to get the popular vote….by doing what their voters (or what they think their voters) want. Ergo their selfishness is giving the people what they want.
So I think the people share a lot of the blame, if not a majority. To many “educated” individuals dont vote for this reason or that reason (and dont realize that its giving the message “we dont care”, not whatever reason they say they aren’t voting [like sending the message of "i dont like the government so i'm not going to participate"]), A lot of ignorant people entrenched in how they where raised dont think for themselves, and some people are so hateful and dont even realize it that they turn into frothing dogs throwing mud and rabid spit everywhere that they keep their brothers (read: the opposing party) from ever siding with them.
that sounds about right
Generally in politics the more important and obvious a decision is the harder it is to get agreement.
This is because to get others to agree to your bill (that might work and make you look good) you have to trade favours with other politicians to buy their vote/support. This is the barefaced version, it’s usually dressed up in less blatant terms.
So if something is desperately needed and obvious, and especially if it’s going to be unpopular, then the promises and favours traded are often very expensive - including support on some _really_ dodgy arse crap that no-one in their right mind would support (or other off the table favours…). Thus important things often struggle to pass, while silent random shit is cheap to slip passed the vote.
Politics is the worst way to run anything pretty much by definition. Unfortunately “efficiency” in running things often resorts to just executing any opposition, eventually. So maybe the trade off is worthwhile.
Just means you got to learn who to trust. Not bankers, not politicians, not the guy in the game next to you who says you can trust him…basically anyone who says they’re trustworthy …won’t be.