Washington Debates "Cult Religion" Instead Of Economic Solutions

If you are a rational thinking human being you would expect our leaders in Washington to be working around the clock to fix the economy and create jobs.   You would expect to see a serious discussion and debate on how to pull the country out of the worst economic downturn since the great depression.  Unfortunately you would be sorely disappointed.    Instead of substantive discourse you find yourself inundated with inane politicians questioning the motivation of “Occupy Wall Street” protestors and criticizing Romney’s Mormonism. 

Take this past weekend for example.

Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor expressed his strong disapproval of the “Occupy Wall Street” protestors, referring to them as “a mob pitting American against American.”  Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi wondered where Mr. Cantor was when Tea party protestors spit on black Congressmen and brandished posters depicting the President as Hitler.  Meanwhile Mega-church pastor Robert Jeffress, a Perry supporter, referred to Romney’s Mormonism as a “cult” and expressed his preference that the President of the United States be a “real” Christian.  Perry did not respond to the pastor’s bigotry choosing cowardly silence instead.  Perhaps Perry realized that silence is preferable to his bumbled response to questions about his hunting camp named “Niggerhead.”

As this latest version of romper room politics played out, the Census Bureau issued a sobering report on the state of the economy.    The New York Times reports that a study conducted by the Census Bureau shows that between June 2009, when the recession officially ended, and June 2011, inflation adjusted median household income fell 6.7%.  During the recession, from December 2007 to June 2009 household income fell 3.2%.  During the recession the average length of time for a person to be unemployed was 24 weeks.  Today it is 40.5 weeks.  In plain fact we are worse off now than we were during the 2007-2009 recession.

One has to question the mental stability of elected officials who engage in these mindless, irrelevant debates when the country is on the verge of economic collapse.  The lack of self awareness is palpable.  And the lack of comprehensive solutions to our country’s problems is proving to be more serious than we could have ever imagined.