April 17, 2010

Simmering mad

Lobbyists spent $3.47B in 2009, a 7% increase over 2008 spending. This money was their investment to influence the language in legislation being cobbled together by this congress.

The health care industry led the way by investing $256 million and the Insurance Industry invested $164 million in efforts to get their interests covered.

Is it any wonder that the so called Health Care Reform bill has over 2,500 pages?

When I think of how Congress makes legislation, I’m reminded of a good friend and neighbor John Stewart making scrapple at our annual neighborhood hog processings.

John would stir the pot, taste a sample, and say “I reckon it needs a bit more of this”, or “I reckon it needs a bit more of that”. The scrapple was never done until John had enough “reckons” in it.

What I see coming out of DC is Washington scrapple where the citizen cooks of this country have been replaced by hundreds of goop makers who put in ingredients that only benefit themselves and which taxpayers are then forced to eat.

We need fewer cooks and a better master chef. Obama, Pelosi and Reid certainly aren’t getting the job done for us.

So in 2010 we need to begin the process of electing a cadre of new cooks, ones who will make scrapple for us to consume, not to enrich a bunch of lobbying corporations.

In November I’m going to vote to take back our country from a lobbyist- corrupted congress.

Back-room dealers can influence politicians with their wealth, but they can’t elect anyone; that job is ours. We can and must elect people who will cook for us.

Rex A. Hoover
Sumerduck

IN LOVING MEMORY OF REX ALLAN HOOVER (1942 - 2017)