After Monday’s speech and Republican reply I would like to humbly submit the following:

President Obama..Take Two

Good Evening.

However gut wrenching, the position we find ourselves in this evening was almost inevitable. It really is a number of people trying to take the “cure” after twenty years of binge spending. Not just the government but all of us.

Much of these problems started in the nineties. We had a valiant effort to make home ownership a significant part of the American dream. A noble concept but one fraught with danger. It required restraint and common sense for every one involved. Very little was evident. We all chased profit. We were all complicit.

Congress and the Executive branch curried favor with the electorate. People knowingly lied on applications. We made zero down an absurdity. Appraisers lied. Banks looked the other way. Rating agencies failed. Wall Street made money hand over fist, knowing the untenable substructure was without value.

At its height it provided a heady feeling all the way around. We boasted of a surplus but it was ill timed. 9/11 arrived with all its hate and fury. Our psyche was savagely attacked as was our homeland. Revenge became a stupid reaction. We went in deep on flimsy grounds.

We didn’t look for a way to fund these hostilities. As a matter of fact we increased spending “like drunken sailors” according to John McCain. And his party was in power. We passed a huge prescription drug bill. The coup de grace of sorts were the tax cuts. What were we thinking?

Not to be outdone the Dems came into power. They couldn’t wait to fund pet programs of welfare of all sorts. Yes, I too pushed a health care bill that should not have been. At least not at that particular period. The malpractice of government continued unabated.

Now the chickens were coming to roost. Wall Street crumbled. America shut down. Foreclosures were the obvious outcome. We despaired financially and in our soul. We tried to stimulate the economy. We borrowed more. We fell deeper. And Washington as guardians of the national trust fund failed miserably.

This day was inevitable. The Tea Party was not wrong in their heart but in their intransigence. We as a government and a nation had lost our compass. But then incredibly we renewed those cuts for everyone. The idiocy in the hope of reelection continued.

Part of the cure is hitting rock bottom. You know you have to do something. You look in the mirror. The games stop. Right now we have to decide as a government which master we want to serve. Our local precinct or the common good.

The talk seems to revolve around the 2012 election. Let me take my hat out of the ring momentarily. I made a decision that entitlements had to be on the table. That does not play well to my base. But it was obvious it had to be. John Boehner also put revenue increases on the table. He also was not greeted with open arms.

I made a big mistake in not taking the Joint Commission’s report on the deficit more seriously. I and the Republicans thought it would never play well in Peoria. We failed to realize how pertinent and workable a document it was. Bipartisan, it should have and should now be our blueprint.

I call on John to join me one more time. We will cut spending deeply. Not just with realigning ledgers. We are fat and obscene. We will raise taxes on those making more than $500,000 and by closing obvious loopholes.

We will all act like adults. We will put reelection on the back burner. I am ready to say the Executive Branch will no longer be under a separate pension fund. We will go into Social Security and transfer our funds there. We will seek out medical insurance like the rest of America. We will make any retirement benefits commensurate with time served. I ask the Legislative and Judicial branches to do the same. Let’s all have skin in the game.

I’d like to say this is a trial balloon. That we have choice. We really don’t. I am ready to face reality. I hope you are too.

Thank you for your time and God bless America….fade to black

Speaker Boehner: Take Two

Thank you Mr. President. I had an entirely different response planned. Listening to you I realized we are all at fault. Every man woman and child in this country. I join you in spirit of cooperation.

I will do so on the strict understanding of the Republican’s overall philosophy. We want less, not more government. We continue to believe government cannot not be the panacea some believe. We understand the need to tax but not to increase spending. We fear that is an underlying theme.

Let’s get on this first thing in the morning. Let’s do something that America and the world can be proud of. I will pledge to sit down until we reach a compromise.

I think your tenor and the history you laid out show we are ALL in this. Let’s just admit this from the start and move on. I will make sure I bring the support of the Republicans and you of the Democrats. That is why we are leaders. It really is time to move forward. We won’t let the country down. We are together.

May God Bless America…..fade to black

As always

Ted The Great

Factoids:

The US Navy has 230 ships at sea. It has 278 admirals. Admirals don’t serve on ships. In WWII there was one admiral for 130 ships.

The head chaplain of the Navy is a two star admiral. He has two admirals under him.

Each admiral cost about $240,000 in salary and benefits.

It is estimated that to get from the Secretary of the Navy to a line officer in the fleet, one has to go through 30 layers of bureaucracy.

The US Navy is but one piece of the defense establishment that is just one part of the US budget. Think of all the agencies and then imagine the waste in each one. Medicare. Education. Agriculture etc. Case Closed

We went up to Vail this weekend. Just a get out of town trip. It was and still is hot in Denver but somehow I don’t think we are alone in the heat. We still have a few friends (at least Kathy does) in the Valley, so were bumming with the best of them.

We had lived in Vail both full and part time for over twenty five years. It was a little like going home again. That myth was completely shattered by the first four hours, when we ran into absolutely no one whom we knew. So much for TTG.

We went to Country Club of the Rockies for some apps and a nice bottle of wine. The veranda looks north and the course and flowers were beyond beautiful. Your mind wanders to so many wonderful and good times. Great rounds. Not so great rounds but with buddies. Friends that have moved on. Friends that are no longer. Your kids as teens. Your stomach when it was flat. Wait a minute!

The verdant fairways and Darren Clarke got me thinking about Ireland. Listen to Irish music and you can slowly drift into melancholy. Hear the din of a pub and you are in the midst of a wonderful mayhem. Think of a windswept day at Lahinch. A beautiful Irish woman. The smiles. The laughter. I thought of all of this on that pretty porch.

Then it hit me! That SOB that infuriated me on one of those picture perfect days on that golf course in an August long ago. Both Irish to the core, we went toe to toe. We almost came to blows but he was much bigger than me. I am not that dumb

God knows what threw me into such a dither but I was reliving it all over again with the same fury as if it was yesterday. Sure we shook hands after the match but that meant nothing if you had any pride. My God I have Irish Alzheimers! ….You only remember the grudges.

I laughed at my reverie. I laughed at my self. How many hours over my life had I sat and let the negative flow come in? Oh man this was a good one. Just sit back and enjoy it. No, it wasn’t depression. It was normal, don’t you see ? What an fool. Irish but still a fool.

I remember once being in a good brood. It wasn’t the strength as much as the length of time. It warped all sense of reality and in time there was absolutely no way I could be wrong about anything.

A priest by the name of Lou Scurdy was saying an early Sunday mass. Lou had a beard that he thought likened himself to Jesus. That wasn’t the only reason Lou thought he had similar qualities to the Savior. But he was good as there was when it came to homilies.

The truth be told, the subject of my wrath was my brother. We were such good friends and then we were so far apart. When you deal with family it only amps it up a notch. The reverend duly outlined the real tragedy of grudges and the precious time lost in this game of life. From that day on I set about healing the wound. We talked. No admission of wrong by either side. We just let it go away.

As I watch this mess or another unfold, I am fascinated by how two three or four people can look at a seemingly forthright situation and see it in an entirely in an entirely different way. As I listen to all the recitals of a litany of grievances, I really wonder if we are talking about the same thing.

Italian women give you the look. Jewish women bitch and scream Oy Vey. Irish women go stone cold silent. Not a word. They also busy themselves. They make the beds three times. They scrub the tub with Bon Ami until the porcelain wears thin. I don’t want to talk about it.

Irish men on the other hand make believe nothing is awry. A smile and a handshake and seething inside. It takes around six pints to get them to put a crack in the door of their psyche. Another six will get you into a discussion of sorts. The last six has you hugging each other and supporting each other from falling or breaking into all out fisticuffs. If he tells you he loves you, head for the door.

This disease is not limited to the Erin Isle. Germans, Greeks, Turks, Norsemen, Danes. All suffer from the malady today. From the looks of things we may have a pandemic on our hands. Let’s at least try to stem the spread of the virus.

I am really going to try and drink the Kool Aid. I am going to try and mend my ways. Maybe I will just call up and say hello. Maybe I will try to be a bigger man. Maybe not waste any more time and energy. There is only so much left. Thank you all for being out there. And please answer the phone even if I call collect.

As always

Ted The Great

Factoids:

Ireland has a population of around 4.7 million. The diaspora of those who claim roots to Ireland is around 50 million.

In the past 20 years the consumption of alcohol has decreased in northern Europe. It has increased a like amount in Ireland.

It’s not the custom in Ireland to wear green ties, hats or other green clothes on St. Patrick’s Day. A sprig of shamrock in the coat lapel is the preferred display. At the end of the day you drown the shamrock in Irish whiskey. Cheers.

I have given the whole idea of reelection to the Congress a lot of thought. I am not running. In some ways I am quitting which is something I never do. But the overwhelming tasks ahead require someone who is looking out for the good of the country and not themselves. Not raising the banner of an outspoken and sometimes selfish minority that can wreak havoc in the name of democracy.

I guess this whole thing of the deficit and debt ceiling has put me over the top but it goes way beyond that. We seem to fill our days with posturing and glad handing. We take too many breaks and are not about the business of the people. We all line up in unison behind this speaker or that and the sight has become as foolish as it is symbolic. Smile for the camera.

We are not a body of statespeople but of lemmings. We refuse to speak our own thoughts for fear of retribution. Go ahead and try to buck the bosses. There will be hell to pay.

The liberals know we must cut back government. The redundancies and duplications are sinful. We must make welfare programs efficient and not cash cows for the local politicos.

The word entitlement should be banned from the description. It was designed and meant for the needy. We have got to means test Social Security and Medicare. Redistribution of wealth is a dangerous proposition. There are inequities to be dealt with but we are not a socialist country.

The conservatives know the solution resides in higher taxes and cutbacks working in tandem. The shovel and the sword. They took basic math. They understand, but those subsidies and loopholes feel so good to their well heeled donors.

It is laughable that people and companies making so much and pay so little in taxes. Just look at estates and yachts and multimillion dollar condos in New York and tell me increased taxes (or more pointedly elimination of tax cuts) will really result in the loss of jobs.

There are bums like Blagojevich and Madoff that should be in jail. There are bums like Rangel, Dimon and Blankfein, who might fit in right beside them. There should be a membership  committee for the likes of union bosses and Weiner and Edwards. They have all lost their way. They have forgotten where they came from.

I have been proud to see the successes of our space program. These thirty years have seen some heady times. But we must now take care of business on earth and leave the heavens to another generation. It will still be there.

I may go back and teach school. I may not join a union. I would like to see my dues going to buy equipment for study rather than newspaper ads and lobbyists. I really believe we must rethink everything about education. It will take visionaries not fighters. We are not good at that.

What scares me most is jobs. Our economy has been 75% based on consumerism. Another large percent on construction. I think people are “thinged” out, They don’t need stuff anymore. Their homes are large enough. We want jobs to return but I really don’t know where they will come from. None of my colleagues on either side of the aisle can give me a specific answer.

The most frustrating aspect of my time here has been the growth of regulation. I hate government intervention. Everybody screams it is those rules that are holding us back.

But coal mine and oil and gas companies still try to cut every corner they can. JP Morgan just paid $228 million for bid rigging. B Of A just agreed to pay billions. Ditto Morgan Stanley and Goldman. All without admitting or denying guilt. Northrop and Boeing admit overcharging. Oh yeah. These guys want to regulate themselves.

No new taxes on one hand and unlimited spending on the other sells like crack on a ghetto street corner. Let’s look the other way on transgressions. Let’s put off tough decisions until tomorrow. Or the next election. Let’s just set up the other guy to take the fall. I love it when a plan comes together.

Maybe I will just write a blog. Maybe I will just try to shake up my readers to the point where they get involved. To the point where they realize it is just as much their responsibility as ours. I hope I can be hard hitting. I hope I have a chance to light the fire in their bellies. God, we need it.

You see I am leaving here because I have lost faith. I can’t be obstinate. I can’t be unreasonable. I have to take whatever God given talent I have and make tough decisions. The only cause I can be a warrior for is my country as a whole. We are incredibly diverse. That can be an attribute or a fatal flaw. But we are one.

I have lost faith but not hope. There’s still time, brothers and sisters. There is still time. But not a lot.

As always

Rep. Ted The Great.( 3^rd District, Planet Mars)

Factoids:

55,000 government buildings are underutilized. In May government construction fell .8% to $276 billion annually.

The US government currently has over 2,000 subsidies to industries and individuals.

The US Navy has designed and built a catamaran coastal vessel that was originally pegged at $220 million. It is now $650 million per copy. Total project cost, $38 billion vs. $8 billion

The USAF spends $644 on a gear that sells for $12.51.

The DOD spent $850 million on a joint military pay system. They contracted with Northrup Grumman. It has been recently scrapped as unworkable. I wonder if ADP bid?

A strange day in paradise. Maybe we are truly settling back into Denver after five years of residence. Many of you are of course wondering when Kathy and I are going to move next. No way. There is a wonderful home town feel here. We love it.

I made homemade ice cream today and our neighbors are coming over for a cookout. There was a parade in the park this morning and the weekend has seen several glorious shows of fireworks. It may be ccorny but Americana is a neat thing.

I am sitting in command central and there is a quiet before the storm. I am starting to think again after our reentry from San Diego and two things loom on the horizon: immigration policy and the debt snafu.

This day there were people taking the oath to become citizens . They were of all nations and colors. They were tearful. They were proud. I thought of 11 million illegals who wish they were in those shoes.

I remember bringing this up one day while playing golf in Arizona. One of my fellow players was very comfortable in his 7000 sf house that was occupied by he and his wife. It had probably been built and cleaned and landscaped weekly by several dozen Latinos. Minor detail, Ted.

I asked what we should do? He replied “Send all those sons of bitches back.” Taking great comfort in his eloquence but a little wary, I asked how? He said simply, “Busses!” I asked if he had any idea how many busses that would take and he said he didn’t care. That is the type of strategic forward thinking we need in America today.

That was probably seven years ago. Let’s just say we have been theoretically working on this problem as a government for 25 years to be gracious. Does anybody really believe we are any closer to a solution? Is it really that hard? Be careful you might piss someone off by doing the right thing. Oh yes, time heals all. Manana.

Now we have the debt limit as a smaller problem of the overall deficit conundrum. Well screw them. Let’s just not raise it. Let’s just go into default. Let’s slice every government agency to nothing. Forget about schools etc. We don’t need them. Sounds like my guy and the busses.

Oh yeah. but don’t touch Social Security or Medicare. On the one hand we have the ads with the forlorn middleager saying her government doesn’t care. Or the one with the homeless in the streets. And that could be you. Don’t let them touch anything. The tooth fairy will come. Plays well in Peoria.

Then there are the economic ruin ads. If we tax anybody higher, we will plunge into a world of hurt. We can’t raise taxes in a recession. Look at all the trickle down and job creation that happened after the Bush tax cuts. Right.

Before I have a vodka and tonic and cook the burgers I am really thinking hard. Governor John Kasich of Ohio was on a weekly journal yesterday. He stated in a refreshingly forthright fashion that each and every politician in Washington has to vote and participate as if he or she did not have another election to run for. He truly felt this was all grandstanding and that there would be a solution. It’s almost like Greek theater. This one is a tragedy.

We have a government that is dysfunctional. Unfortunately I think we as citizens are guilty of the same malfeasance. We don’t study what’s going on. We refuse to be educated because ignorance is bliss. What did you watch on TV this week? Oh yes the Anthony trial.

We will only vote for someone who matches our view regardless of how much sense or lack thereof he or she makes. We vote in lockstep as a Congress and as a people. Kiss it and make it all better. Nothing could be more dangerous.

On the Fourth of July we celebrate our independence. Are we really independent thinkers? Can we put the good of all above our own selfish wants and agendas? I think that is the broader question before we tackle anything.

Free will and freedom itself implies responsibility. It’s hard to think of on this beautiful Colorado blue sky day. And I regret I have to. We don’t have enough busses. We don’t have enough time.

As always,

Ted The Great

Factoids:

It would take approximately 220,000 full Greyhounds to send all those sons of bitches home.

In Georgia, a farmer’s berry crop is rotting on the ground because he can’t get it picked. There was a crackdown on immigrants and he can’t get many legals to work for him, even though he pays $11 per hour.

We educate thousands of foreigners in our universities in Math, Sciences, Computers and Engineering. After that we deport them even though jobs are waiting to be filled. George Will said we should staple a green card to every post graduate degree. At last some clear thinking.