ScottSevener.com

It’s hard not to watch all of this crazy Presidential Campaign blundering without thinking that you could do it better. When I look at the GOP’s version of how they seem to think our government should work, frankly I think that a chimp hanging upside-down from the Lincoln Memorial could do a better job of trying to right our country once again, but since as far as I understand not many apes are active bloggers in this day and age, I suppose you’ll just have to settle for my opinion instead…  😉

In my mind, the core problems with the US government right this very second are two-fold:

• big money has too much influence on how/what/when things get done
• congress couldn’t balance a budget if they were monkeys hanging from the Lincoln Memorial

Everything else stems from these two issues, so instead of trying to patch all of the other leaks first, let’s fix the actual flood and over time we can then work on the details that end up becoming the talking points and ultimately why nothing ever gets done in the grand scheme of things as we flow from one administration to another. Sure, it’s going to ruffle a few feathers of the people who want gun control or abortion or military spending or TV/VCR repair to be the primary focus of anyone and everyone who holds any position above Chief Plumbing Engineer in our government, but at the end of the day, someone is always going to be disappointed, so we pick the blanket angles that will cascade down to everything else and eventually all of the important issues will get addressed accordingly.

The End of Lobbying & Campaign Fundraising
Scott’s Crazy Change #1 –  politicians from local board members all the way up to the president can no longer accept money from anyone other than their actual employers (us taxpayers) for doing their jobs. Businesses and corporate giants should feel free to take the millions and billions that they spend buying our congressmen and instead reinvest in their own businesses because it’s time that our politicians actually started passing laws based on what’s best for the people instead of what’s best for the profits.

They’re going to have to work more because instead of just voting for whoever contributed the most to their bankrolls, congress is actually going to have to evaluate situations based on the evidence that they’ve been presented to determine what the best course of action for the American public is going to be. Anyone who violates this ban should be punished swiftly and severely – corporations will be banned from providing their input for future sessions, and politicians will be out of a job – no fucking around. It’s time that these people who’ve chosen careers to service the public actually start doing it, and since the vast majority of the public aren’t millionaires by any stretch of the imagination, neither should they…

Strict Term Limits When We’re Not Fiscally Responsible
Now Scott’s Crazy Change #2 is one that I’m actually adopting from Warren Buffett because I think it’s just brilliant even though it would certainly piss a lot of people off, but his two cents about how to balance our budget in 5 minutes – “Just pass a law that says anytime there’s a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for reelection.” I mean, as I write this today, we have a national debt of over $15 trillion which continues to grow at an astonishing rate of $4 billion/day and our GDP in 2010 was only $14.58 trillion – anyone who’s tried to pay off a credit card knows that you can’t make any kind of headway at actually paying off a debt that big without first stopping it from growing even bigger!

Our nation’s budget is an extreme problem and most definitely at the root at a lot of issues, so we need to get some people in office who will stop bickering over who’s pet projects are more important and instead find some compromises that will allow us to first balance our existing budget and then also create a surplus so we can start chipping that gigantic monster of a debt away.

I guess the key underlying philosophy behind both of these bullet points is that we need to attract an entirely different crowd of politicians than who we currently have in office because instead of profiteering and pandering to those with the biggest checkbooks, they need to be involved because they’re truly passionate about their civic duty and want to create a country that’s great for all of us to thrive and succeed in. It’s a huge shake up to rid us of all of the corruption and dead weight that has plagued American government for decades, but a necessary one if we truly want to consider ourselves the greatest nation on earth.

I know that these things sound radical and unimaginable based on expectations of how things run today, however I truly and sincerely believe that we do have politicians and would-be politicians out there in the woodwork who would gladly serve underneath these rules if simply given the chance to help get our country back on track. All we have to do is get the fat cats and their ulterior motives out of the way first…

So I may not be able to come up with anything creative on my own, but at least I have … opinions about other things?

Whitney Houston
I was never really much of a fan, though I’m sure that I’d probably recognize her songs if I heard them even if I can’t name any off the top of my head right now. Rumor has it that there was going to be some sort of tribute to her at the Grammys tonight, though not sure what they’ll be able to whip up in a single day’s time. I will be curious to see if it becomes as much of a media circus next week as Michael Jackson’s death did, though…

Religion vs. Healthcare
I don’t know about you, but I’m so tired of hearing the biggest religion in the land complaining that it’s being marginalized by the needs of the few. The idea that any health insurance provider could offer a policy that doesn’t include contraception just absolutely baffles me, and not simply for the fact that a lot of women use birth control pills to regulate things in their bodies that have nothing to do with preventing pregnancies! These people still seriously believe that everyone else just needs to stop having sex and they believe it to be their right to regulate whatever they can to prevent it. Maybe they can’t pass a law flat out prohibiting contraception, but they can allow religious employers to prevent all of their employees from using it, and to them that’s a good start. 

I remember back when I first heard that story about the CVS clerk refusing to sell The Morning After pill based on her religious beliefs, and my reaction at the time was that CVS should’ve fired her on the spot for refusing to do her job. If they hung a sign on the door saying “CVS Does Not Sell Plan B Due to Religious Values,” then so be it and she should take her dollars elsewhere. But this tale is now a little different because it’s a little easier to walk down the street to a different pharmacy than it is to, oh say, find a new job.

Hating on Obama
And lastly, one thing that I particularly hate about this time of year that I’m going to have to put up with all the way until November is the constant nitpicking by all of these nut bag GOP candidates on every little thing that the President does because they see it all as fuel for their own campaigns. We get it – you don’t like President Obama. And here’s a clue – neither do most of your existing voters whose votes you already had the second the guy set foot in the Oval Office. How’s about instead of taunting that “the first thing I’ll do is reverse ObamaCare!” or “reinstate Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell!” or whatever else you despise about the current administration’s policies, maybe you could come up with something better on your own and pitch that to the American public as an alternative.

All I hear when these guys boast that they’ll repeal everything the last guy did is that they’re living in the past instead of trying to move us forward as a country. If all Presidents ever did during their 4 years was reverse everything else that the last guy did in his 4 years, our government would never actually get anything done.

Oh, wait…