March 14, 2010
COLUMBUS: If you want to see a city on the move, go to Washington. Buildings are being built and renovated. Cars and buses pack the streets. No foreclosure signs, and seldom a vacant store. When the President looks up Pennsylvania Avenue all he sees is a booming economy. No wonder he thinks his stimulus plan is working.
Can’t be much unemployment. Around the Capitol it’s just crawling with traffic cops and security folks. If you can blow a whistle and say, "No, you can’t go there," (in English), they’ll probably hire you. At the Department of Agriculture they checked visiting farmers to be sure they weren’t trying to sneak in a pitchfork or ax handle, even if they was wearing a 3-piece suit.
I didn’t get into the Capitol. They closed it on Wednesday for a big ceremony honoring civilian women pilots from World War II. I read in the newspaper that some of the men back then did not believe a woman could fly one of those Army airplanes. A plane would land, a woman would climb down out of it, and the guy on the ground would ask her, "Where’s the pilot?" Shucks, I could have told them about plenty of fine aviatrixes way before 1940, like Amelia Earhart. The women used to have air races, called them Power Puff Derbies.
An Ohio farmer got excited when he came across an old newspaper article where Nancy Pelosi said she wanted to "drain the swamp." See, there is millions of acres of farm land in Ohio and other states that floods about every spring and stays wet. The government has said it should be called a "wetland" and leave it alone. So he thought Speaker Pelosi had changed her mind and would let farmers put in more ditches and tile. But she was only talking about cleaning up Congress, mainly Republicans. She was surprised to find a few Democrats mired down in the mud, too.
Almost a hundred of us Ohio Farm Bureau members got to meet in the Longworth House Office Building (named for Nick Longworth, Speaker from 1926-31) with Mike Pence of Indiana and several Ohio Congressmen including Boehner, Tiberi, Jordan, Austria and Marcy Kaptur.
John Boehner is the loyal opposition to the Democrats and Speaker Pelosi. He does not think the Health Care bill will pass. "The minute the Democrats can round up a majority for it, she will hold a vote. She’s been trying since Christmas, and is still short." On the Estate Tax bill, Boehner says they will compromise and pass it. But Congressman Tiberi says he doesn’t think Congress can make it retroactive to January 1. "How can we tell a family that lost Grandpa in February, when the tax was zero, that we’ve changed our minds and now we want 45 percent?"
Social Security payments are now borrowed from China. They used to come from payments by younger American workers, but those are short this year and they’ll have to borrow $29 Billion. A fellow who has been working for forty years is going to be thrilled to learn that all his Social Security money has been squandered and now he has to depend on the generosity of China and India to loan us enough to cover him. Social Security was started in 1935 by Franklin Roosevelt, and since about 1970 it was run by Bernie Madoff.
Personally, I think the best security for old age is to be nice to your grandchildren.
Historic quotes from Will Rogers:
"Retroactive. I like to use that word. I just learned it. Retroactive. It means that you can go back and get something that you forgot to get at the time. In other words they can turn around and go back and run over you after missing you the first time." Radio, May 26, 1935
Randall Reeder
Will Rogers Today http://willrogerstoday.com
614-477-0439 willrogers@aol.com
Need a Speaker? Hurry up and hire me before I die... again.
Showing posts with label Pelosi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pelosi. Show all posts
Monday, March 15, 2010
Monday, November 30, 2009
Weekly Comments: This time it’s Pelosi sweet talking Reid #577
Nov. 15, 2009
COLUMBUS: The Health Reform bill finally passed the House. I think it was by 220-215, and now our Senators get to argue over it.
Don’t be surprised to see Speaker Pelosi standing beside Harry Reid addressing questions about the merits of the bill. She’s liable to reach over, put her arm around Harry’s waist and say, “Harry, we have written a perfect health care bill; why don’t you go to your Senators and sweet talk them into passing it as is, as a favor for little ole me.” Well, you’ll see Harry’s eyebrows raise and his eyes open wide as he inches sideways out of her grasp.
No doubt we need some reform for the few million who can’t get insurance. I was talking to a Judge in Claremore a week ago, and she said it’s really sad to see so many foreclosures in her court because severe illness has wiped out a family’s ability to make house payments. And some of these houses are old and small, worth only $35,000 she said.
Just wish Congress would concentrate on helping those kind of folks and reducing costs for the rest of us without messing up what’s good about our system. Why would you cut salaries for doctors and nurses and leave the lawyers alone? Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and other Wall Streeters say we have to pay bonuses of $30 Billion this year or we’ll lose these bright financiers. Aren’t they the ones who helped shove us into this recession? Wouldn’t it make more sense to reserve the $30 Billion for doctors?
I just returned from speaking in Lubbock. Headline in the Avalanche-Journal says: Cotton producers are all smiles. They’re smiling because cotton yields in West Texas are ten percent above last year, while the rest of the country is down. Bet you didn’t know almost forty percent of our cotton will come from Texas this year. Wonderful people in Lubbock; even got to see the famous American Windmill Museum, a must-stop for a windy speaker.
The President decided to try the foreign terrorists in New York instead of at Guantanamo in a military trial. The Attorney General says we will convict them in NY, then put them in prison in Illinois. He did not say what would happen if their lawyers are better than our lawyers and they are set free.
Senator Durbin is thrilled that 3000 Illinois Democrats will be hired to guard the 200 prisoners from Gitmo. They plan to buy an empty prison and fix it up. I’m wondering, with 15 armed guards for each prisoner, why do you even need a prison.
Back in May I proposed Nevada as a better choice. We already spent $10 Billion tunneling out a storage space for nuclear materials under Yucca Mountain, but Senator Reid won’t let us store any. So, just build a steel gate across the entrance and put the terrorists in there. Once a week bring in food and water and let them take care of each other. No guards needed inside. Let those 3000 do something useful, like farming or working in a meat processing plant. Maybe some could become doctors and nurses. Anything but Wall Streeters.
Historic quotes from Will Rogers:
“(Congress) wouldn't be so serious and particular if they only had to vote on what they thought was good for the majority of the people. That would be a cinch. But what makes it hard for them is every time a bill comes up they have things to decide that have nothing to do with the merit of the bill. The principal thing is of course: What will this do for me personally back home? A man's thoughts are naturally on his next term, more than on his country.” WA #78, June 8, 1924
Randall Reeder is Will Rogers Today
http://willrogerstoday.com willrogers@aol.com
614-477-0439
Need a Speaker? Hurry up and hire me before I die... again.
COLUMBUS: The Health Reform bill finally passed the House. I think it was by 220-215, and now our Senators get to argue over it.
Don’t be surprised to see Speaker Pelosi standing beside Harry Reid addressing questions about the merits of the bill. She’s liable to reach over, put her arm around Harry’s waist and say, “Harry, we have written a perfect health care bill; why don’t you go to your Senators and sweet talk them into passing it as is, as a favor for little ole me.” Well, you’ll see Harry’s eyebrows raise and his eyes open wide as he inches sideways out of her grasp.
No doubt we need some reform for the few million who can’t get insurance. I was talking to a Judge in Claremore a week ago, and she said it’s really sad to see so many foreclosures in her court because severe illness has wiped out a family’s ability to make house payments. And some of these houses are old and small, worth only $35,000 she said.
Just wish Congress would concentrate on helping those kind of folks and reducing costs for the rest of us without messing up what’s good about our system. Why would you cut salaries for doctors and nurses and leave the lawyers alone? Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and other Wall Streeters say we have to pay bonuses of $30 Billion this year or we’ll lose these bright financiers. Aren’t they the ones who helped shove us into this recession? Wouldn’t it make more sense to reserve the $30 Billion for doctors?
I just returned from speaking in Lubbock. Headline in the Avalanche-Journal says: Cotton producers are all smiles. They’re smiling because cotton yields in West Texas are ten percent above last year, while the rest of the country is down. Bet you didn’t know almost forty percent of our cotton will come from Texas this year. Wonderful people in Lubbock; even got to see the famous American Windmill Museum, a must-stop for a windy speaker.
The President decided to try the foreign terrorists in New York instead of at Guantanamo in a military trial. The Attorney General says we will convict them in NY, then put them in prison in Illinois. He did not say what would happen if their lawyers are better than our lawyers and they are set free.
Senator Durbin is thrilled that 3000 Illinois Democrats will be hired to guard the 200 prisoners from Gitmo. They plan to buy an empty prison and fix it up. I’m wondering, with 15 armed guards for each prisoner, why do you even need a prison.
Back in May I proposed Nevada as a better choice. We already spent $10 Billion tunneling out a storage space for nuclear materials under Yucca Mountain, but Senator Reid won’t let us store any. So, just build a steel gate across the entrance and put the terrorists in there. Once a week bring in food and water and let them take care of each other. No guards needed inside. Let those 3000 do something useful, like farming or working in a meat processing plant. Maybe some could become doctors and nurses. Anything but Wall Streeters.
Historic quotes from Will Rogers:
“(Congress) wouldn't be so serious and particular if they only had to vote on what they thought was good for the majority of the people. That would be a cinch. But what makes it hard for them is every time a bill comes up they have things to decide that have nothing to do with the merit of the bill. The principal thing is of course: What will this do for me personally back home? A man's thoughts are naturally on his next term, more than on his country.” WA #78, June 8, 1924
Randall Reeder is Will Rogers Today
http://willrogerstoday.com willrogers@aol.com
614-477-0439
Need a Speaker? Hurry up and hire me before I die... again.
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