I’m starting to think that the country would run a lot smoother if my parents were in charge of Congress. And I don’t mean house speakers or committee chairs or anything, I mean, everything that congress did would have to be run by them. Want to put a bill to a floor vote? As long as the floor is clean. Sleep-over party with a lobbyist? Make sure it’s okay with your father. I don’t care if you’re under oath or not; I can tell when you’re lying!
Case in point: When I was 17 a guy at work was trying to sell me his old 1980 Mercury Cougar, and it was a pretty easy sell cause I wanted this thing bad. Real. Real. Bad. Granted, it smelled weird, was already 17 years old when I was looking at it (born the same year I was), ate gas, couldn’t stop in the rain, couldn’t stop on a hill, couldn’t stop pretty much anywhere, but none of that really mattered. The car was freedom, and I wanted to be free. Free to pick up and go in a vehicle that was mine and mine alone. Free to have no-one tell me what to do or where to be. I wanted the special kind of unrealistic freedom that a 17 year old kid assumes is just around the corner at nearly all times, provided he makes a couple of “good” decisions.
Anyway, I approached my parents with the idea, and they sat me down and without telling me no, told me that if I indeed wanted to buy my own car, that meant that I’d also be buying my own insurance and paying for my own repairs. Sure, the initial $800 price tag on the car was low, but after that, and after insurance payments, and after new brakes, and after everything else, I’d basically be working my entire job each week, all the hours, just to break even. I was welcome to buy the Cougar, but I was also welcome to share the use of my mom’s car at no additional cost to me. Freedom averted!
So you can imagine my chagrin when I read the following graph in a New York Times article titled: Call for Change Ignored, Levees Remain Patchy.
And after
Hurricane Katrina destroyed levees protecting New Orleans in 2005, Congress passed a bill setting up a program to inventory and inspect levees, but it failed to provide enough money to carry that out, Dr. Galloway said. “We don’t even know where some of these levees are,” he said.
Come on guys. Really? Really?! Seems just one conversation with my parents would have completely avoided this whole thing from getting as bad as it has.
Now, how to approach the Highway Appropriations Bill. Might want to wait until after dinner…
