Nine Months

In nine short months, a child conceived today will be a new, living, breathing American citizen. For the child's mother, that nine months will seem an eternity of ill-fitting clothes, lower back pain and being unable to roll over at night. The days will seem to stretch on endlessly, especially the long, hot days of August and she will long for the first week in November. The child will rest blissfully; only occasionally kicking or making itself known. Meanwhile, the world rocks on.

In nine short months, 435 men and women will be elected to the United States House of Representatives. Those 435 people will serve in "the people's House" and hopefully be our most direct connection with our federal government. I say "hopefully" for a reason.

Throughout the past Congressional term, filled with the promise of a large majority in the US House and a filibuster-proof US Senate, Congressional Democrats have done what they do best: look down their collective noses at middle-class American citizens.

Perhaps it's a misunderstanding based on ignorance. I don't see US Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer or Jim Marshall being especially aware of the price of a gallon of milk or even the problems with our public school systems. Somehow I can't see Nancy discussing the merits of .45 caliber bullets versus those of the 9 millimeter or the .40 caliber variety; or Steny raking leaves while chatting with a neighbor over the back fence about last week's Sunday School lesson.

I also can't see any of them, including my Representative Jim Marshall, worrying about our looming national debt because they all voted to increase it. Now I know they'll say that they didn't want to increase the federal debt limit but had to in order for the United States to meet its financial obligations. Well yes, that's true as far as it goes but it doesn't go very far. The reason it doesn't go very far is that Pelosi, Hoyer and Marshall all voted for the earmark-stained spending bill that spent more money than we had.



Their ineptitude and willingness to skirt the tough decisions are what they believe justifies increasing the debt limit yet again. In other words, they failed as stewards of our country's treasury and because they failed miserably we should allow them access to even more money. Feel free to go back and read that again; really, it's fine. This mind-boggling assumption by Congress reflects both arrogance and nonsense of a proportion hard to comprehend.

American citizens are worried about that debt though; even more than our foreign bondholders. Too bad the Democrats aren't concerned, but they might be concerned about the expressions on the faces of the people they myopically consider and then ignore. The middle-class may be beginning to pay attention. Pelosi, Hoyer and Marshall hope they won't.

You see these middle-class folks that Pelosi and Hoyer and Marshall all consider too ignorant to comprehend the nuances of the big bad federal budget seem to understand something that our US Representatives don't. Someone will have to pay for that increase in spending by our national government. That "someone" won't be the poor because they simply don't have the money; and contrary to that great economic expert Barack Obama, it won't be the few remaining wealthy either. Wealth and income are two different things and wealth can be protected and income made nearly untouchable with good accountants and tax attorneys.

Middle-class families have money, mostly through labor income. Unfortunately they do not have the wealth to protect their income from the government and they will eventually be the ones to pay for these drunken and excessive spending increases.

This third debt increase in 12 months shows that Congress doesn't have a clue as to the depth of this recession. The White House will happily crow about the 9.7% unemployment rate - and that should tell you how bad things are - but it ignores the fact that still more jobs were lost and fewer people are employed. Discouraged workers, who no longer show in the unemployment figures, are now fodder for the Obama PR machine. As with the ill-fated "Cash-for-Clunkers" program, Obama stands on the backs of the poor and unemployed for his photo op.

And so in this election year, Nancy Pelosi will continue to refer to Patriotic Americans - the Tea Party people in particular - as "astro-turf" and "un-American" while accusing them, in language as subtle as a sledge hammer, of being Nazis. She will continue to push health care reform notions that would send the economy spiraling downward into depression and the Cap and Trade Tax that would kill American industry. In othe words, she is a great asset to the aspirations of GOP House challengers.

As to which of the 435 people will be our newly-elected Representives in November, this will depend on the middle-class people of this country. Like the mother at the beginning of this column, will the Tea Party people and others in the middle-class give birth to something new the first week of November? Or will the first week of November find them with fading enthusiasm, resting blissfully with only an occasional kick to make themselves known. The next nine months will tell the tale.

As for the baby born this upcoming November, she will immediately find herself $40,000 in debt - the equivalent of a lifetime car payment with no car attached. Welcome to "Hope" and "Change", kid.