Friday, September 26, 2008

Sometimes She's A Little Opinionated

Did you try to watch the debates tonight?

I say try because it started at 9 here and we turned it off at 9:36. I couldn't take any more of it. They were driving me crazy. Crazy I say. And I like politics.

I don't see how a debate helps us understand anything about either candidate. Not one thing resonated with me in the first thirty minutes. All I heard was non-answers. They get a yes/no question and never say yes or no. They tell us how the other candidate is going to hurt us, but fail to explain their own ideas. If those ideas were worth following, we wouldn't have to be told how bad the other guy is. By the time they go back and forth on one question, I have no idea who is telling the truth, where the truth is being stretched, or if there's any truth at all. So, again, what's the point?

To me, it sounds like they think they are running for king. No doubt congressional spending is a mess - but if the president vetoes every spending bill until he gets one he likes, or puts a spending freeze on all non-essential agencies, can you imagine the chaos that would ensue? We'd like to think he could just whip 'em into shape and create a logical budget shortly after taking office, but it just doesn't work like that. There are checks and balances for a reason. Sometimes they save us from power mongers and sometimes they make clean up of big messes harder. Congress has control of the money and Congress has to clean it up. The president can work with them and try to lead them in a certain direction. He can veto whole bills, but in the end, they write the spending legislation. A standoff between the two leads to a government shut down.

And since I'm all agitated anyway, let me just point out, again, that education does not belong anywhere near the federal government. It belongs with the states under Amendment Ten of the Constitution. Any power not specifically given to the federal government belongs to the states. That includes all this preschool jabber. Our kids leave our homes plenty early enough at age five to attend school. The government should not be aiming to take our four year olds out too. It sounds all nice for the federal government to make sure everyone has access to preschool, but the next step after that is making it mandatory. Congress should leave education to the educators and to the states. That may sound harsh to the states at the bottom of the performance lists, but they need to take a hard look at how they landed there and make a few changes. Without government assistance.

Phew! Now that I got that off my chest, I better get back to work. Lots of data entry to complete and a deadline that is drawing nearer by the minute.

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

Oh Julie, I felt the same way to an extent. I actually made it through the whole thing, but so help me, if they didn't just answer the stinking questions they were asked.... it was just "blah, blah, blah...." about whatever they wanted to talk about. Frustrating!!!

ChrisS said...

Julie for president!