ENERGY PRICES ARE MERELY THE SYMPTOM: What Has Congress Done For (Or To) Americans Lately?

1. Out-of-Hand Energy Prices: Oh, they are so coy, explaining away the reasons for the high energy prices as being environmentalism, rising demand, lack of refinery capacity, and too few dead dinosaurs. “But,” they glibly offer, “we can do away with the gas tax for the summer and that’ll save everyone $2.00 a tank of gas.” You know, most Americans were paying $25.00 for a tank of gas in 2006, and now they’re paying $50.00 for the same tank. What in hell is the difference between $48.00 for a tank of gas and $50.00 for a tank of gas? Did my earnings double in the same time? Why don’t you take your damned $2.00 savings for a tank of gas and stick it? Nice and tight. Just, stick it!

Get a smaller car? I’m sorry, my car is as small as I can go. I don’t know how to drive a motor scooter. Drive less? I don’t know about you, but I started driving less when the cost for a tank of gas went from $15.00 a tank to $25.00 a tank. What about the fixed income people, those on retirement and social security? What about farmers and truck drivers? What advice do you nice Congress people have for them?

Here’s a refreshing idea….. Let’s have a “windfall profits tax.” Who in the snot hell do you think pays all of the taxes in this country? That’ll just drive the price of gas higher!

This problem is not a new problem. It’s been going on seemingly forever! Just consider the billions of dollars the oil barons are making. How much money is this country spending looking for a viable, new alternative energy source to permanently replace fossil fuels? Is it even a simple one billion? So, what is Congress really doing about it? Nothing. Not a damned thing.

2. Rising Cost of Prescription Medicines: As a rule, those using the greatest amount of prescription medications to deal with chronic issues are the retired and elderly. These are the people least prepared to deal with medications that are skyrocketing in cost. The profits for drug manufacturing companies in America are also soaring. It is far less expensive for Americans to obtain their required medications in Mexico or Canada; yet, rather than dealing with the real problem, our friends in Congress have chosen to prevent us from buying our medications in Mexico or Canada. In other words, Congress is telling you and me that they don’t give a flying foo foo bird about our personal finances. They’re not doing a damned thing about it.

3. Shameful Treatment of America’s Poor: I don’t need to elaborate on this. You know fully well that Congress is not doing a damned thing about it.

4. Crime: Rape, drug use, murder… You know the list. The plain fact is that more and more crimes are being committed with the use of firearms and, of those firearms used in the commission of crimes, the vast majority are not registered and were obtained illegally. So, the proposed answer is to ban firearms in the whole country? That only means that you are disarming the honest and law abiding citizens while the crime committers will continue to use illegal firearms. Aside from that issue, the majority of America’s law enforcement departments are vastly under funded, meaning that training is often insufficient and manpower is stretched to its limits. What is Congress doing about this problem? Nothing. Not a frickin’ thing.

5. Illegal Aliens: Here is another issue that has been around for a very long time. It’s been a front-page concern for most of Bush’s administration, through a Republican dominated Congress and on into a Democrat dominated Congress. None of the issues mentioned on this page are party issues. They’re Congressional issues. And, obviously, this is another issue that Congress hasn’t really done a damned thing about, although we did allow some border patrol agents and sheriff’s deputies to go to jail for doing their jobs on the border.

6. Oink Oink: This list is endless….. The list of money that has been totally misued, abused and wasted by Congress over the years. They keep talking about it, but what have they done about it? Again, the answer is nothing. Maybe the answer to this problem is that Congressional delegates are all out of the country on taxpayer paid fact-finding junkets when the vote comes up to curtail pork.

The list of things that Congress has not addressed, or attempted to resolve, or dealt with in a steadfast and proactive manner is also endless. And, having addressed a paltry six of the issues that need to be addressed, those that are all symptoms of the problem, I think we see the common thread.

Congress isn’t doing a damned thing.

You know what we have to do about it, and so do I. November, thankfully, is just around the corner.

That’s MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.