by Nancy Seddens

Created on: February 19, 2010

America needs to wake up and smell the coffee. She needs to watch her employees and not be fooled when they use her money to bribe her to let them keep their jobs. Every two years a third of the Senate and all of the House of Representative vie for a contract to continue their employment.

They, and those who want to replace them, promise America what she wants to hear and then once they have the job, they go to Washington and do their master’s bidding. The republican and democrat congressmen take their marching orders from their respective parties instead of their constituents.

Republicans call the democrats tax and spend while the democrats say the republicans work only for the rich and for big business. The truth is that both parties are equally guilty of whatever they each claim about the other.

Both parties cater to the rich and powerful and if it is true the democrats, when they control the Congress, spend like drunken sailors, then it is just as true that republicans when given an equal chance spend like drunken democrats.

The reason ours is a democratic republic and not a true democracy is because policy cannot be made on a whim and public opinion changes to fast to guide a nation in a straight line. Another reason is that each individual American cannot be made aware of all the detailed information needed to run the country.

This is why we have a President to plot the course and a Congress to make sure our interests and general wishes are followed as the President does his job.

We can’t expect them to always do exactly what we want because we don’t always have the information to make an informed decision; however, most of time those we have elected should be conducting business in a manner we would approve of.

The reality now is that the President hires lots of people to do parts of his job and then when things go awry they take the blame. He tells the electorate what they want to hear and does what is dictated by his own party so that he will be able to achieve his own ambitions.

This is not new, this did not start with President Obama instead this is a problem that has been building for several administration. President Bush signed spending bill after spending bill so that Congress would let him have money for the war on terror.

The United States has accrued a massive debt while wasting huge amounts of money in a monstrous bureaucracy. Whose fault is it? Is it the current President’s or the former President’s? Is it the fault of Congress?

No, it is none of the above; it is the fault of the people. We the people have fallen down on the job. We have hired people to keep our Presidents in check and then ignored them until it was time to renew their contract. 

Americans need to realize that they own America and that Congress is employed by them to make laws and keep the President, who is elected CEO, in check. Before America can expect a President or member of Congress to do his or her job, we the people must do ours.

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