from Gene Haynes to Chronicle /
July 29, 2006
 
What kind of government leadership do we have when Congress has voted themselves $32,000 in pay raises since 1997? During this same period, minimum wage-earners have gotten a zero increase in pay. However in an odd coincidence, the clamor to increase public wages has finally caught the ear of Congress just months before the mid-term election.

To salvage the election, Republicans in the U.S. House passed a new bill. Did they pass an ethics bill? Did they cut their own salaries? Did they vote America out of Israel or Iraq? Nope, they voted-up a minimum wage increase so they could dangle a bone in front of the public …. but the bone is tied to add-on legislation that gives wealthy Americans further tax cuts. The add-on legislation makes passage of the bill impossible for the Senate, and therefore the increase in minimum wage can’t possibly take effect. But the preposterous thing is these guys knew the bill would fail and only wanted a show-piece for the election.

Again and again the American people are left wondering if our government will ever issue leadership that moves us toward a balanced long-term future in this country.

Where is the leadership in America when a narrow group of people run the country like their personal bankroll? These guys serve colossal sums of money to connected contractors so they can clean up totally predictable messes they allowed to happen in New Orleans and Bagdad. Meanwhile the public can only watch wide-eyed as oil companies sweat staggering profits off the backs of everybody who needs their vehicle to get to work. At the same time Americans are absorbing increases in fuel prices, we are watching electric bill and insurance rates and property tax go up.
 
Where is America's forward-planning leadership in our economy today? Why has our government encouraged people to buy huge gas-wasting vehicles instead of enacting common-sense mileage standards? Why has our government encouraged people to build ever-larger houses that consume more and more electric power during a time when capacity to generate is stretched to its maximum? Why has our government demanded that schools produce more scientists, yet avidly discredit any scientist warning the public about global excess?

Most importantly, why has our government not asked that people live modestly, and drive modestly and conserve resources when they know our aging electric grid and petroleum acquisition resources make us vulnerable? Is it possible that the people in power don’t care because these vulnerabilities only affect the little people, and won’t affect the rich guys who decide at whim when to give themselves a raise?



Gene Haynes