Thursday.....Politics.....Credibility Gap

They say it's the last down payment from the stimulus epidemic but it would be more accurate to describe it as the last snow job for votes they can pull before the elections. The $26 billion aid to states package is near being signed in the Oval Office. $10 billion dollars of it will go to saving teacher and other government jobs. The rest, $16 billion, will go to various states to pay for Medicaid thus alleviating state budgetary problems. The vote? No surprise here. The Democrats, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe voted for it, the rest of Republicans didn't. California will be the chief beneficiary. As one Senator stated, For the first time in our history, the federal government is the single largest source of revenue for the states. The illusion is that the money is paid for, but monies were shifted around. Food stamps took the biggest hit but critics say that that even that money will be restored through some innovative accounting measures. Two things are happening here that you will not get from most national news sources, Special interest groups, supporters of Democrats in the last election will be rewarded, is the first.The second is that states that have actually been fiscally accountable will pay for those who have not, Americans will pay for the mistakes of states they do not live in and irresponsibility of politicians they did not vote for. In the Academy Award honored film Funny Girl, there is a scene where Fanny Brice (Barbara Streisand) and Nicky Arnstein (Omar Sharif) are lamenting his huge gambling losses. She was taken with him from the time she met him, handsome, suave and always wearing a frilly shirt. He lost nearly everything at the tables; Even your frilly shirt she asked him? "No, not my "frilly shirt" he answered, "I'll always have that.". This Congress has gambled with the financial stability of the citizenry and is losing everything...except its frilly shirt. They retain their $174,000 salaries, pensions, health insurance, percs and self-sustaining re-election campaign power. What are the chances of Congress reigning in their own expenses? There is a growing public perception that government sector workers are taking advantage of their nearness to and utility for politicians. When the Greek debt burden nearly collapsed the country's economic system, the government, under pressure from the EU,  administered stringent economic cuts to the public sector it had over-compensated. When "our" Greece, California, nearly followed suit, our response is to take the money from other states and give it to them. The Cuban government employs roughly 90% of the entire workforce. It's a running joke there that They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work. Today's U. S. A. Today's front page reported that "the compensation gap between federal and private workers has doubled in the past decade to $62,998" and that gap continues to widen.