Lost Opportunities?

Funny. The election is over but rhetoric continues at 90 miles per hour as though it weren't over.  Caught a line in the sand dare from Lindsay Graham on TV last night. He said he was willing to compromise on the Fiscal Cliff negotiations as long as Democrats were willing to compromise on entitlements! Surprised? No. His challenge is code for: ‘I’ll give you what you want in small part if you give me everything I want.’

Last I checked there were two entitlements: Social Security and Medicare. Both of these are actuarial based and funded through use taxes by employees and employers. Self employed pay double. If the two programs have financial difficulties, then it is because Congress screwed it up over and over. But we have tweaked the systems to stay solvent. They should be stronger, but they are not the cause of the Fiscal Cliff. The two programs have solvent trust funds and are not immediately in harm’s way. Congress knows that. They spout political nonsense to cloud the facts for the voters.

Congress has played games with Social Security and Medicare long enough. They have been found with their hands in the cookie jar. Congress owes Social Security’s trust fund $5 trillion. They borrowed it to pay for the Iraq War, Afghanistan War and countless other excursions of logic.

Keep these two programs solvent; do not include them in the Fiscal Cliff negotiations. They do not belong there and they know it.

Other quotes we could have used during the campaigns are these:

First from Barry Goldwater back in the 1960’s:

“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the Republican Party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.”

I felt the same way back then but the party wouldn't listen. What Goldwater feared would happen has happened. It is the basis of the current gridlock. It need not have happened. Freedom of Religion is working just fine. What the hardliners seem to think is that religion needs to be the ‘governing power’ behind our democracy. If that is so would they please point out to me the advantages of Muslim governance in the Middle Eastern states?

Second, Galileo made this statement long ago:

“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”

Condemned by the Vatican Galileo has been restored to public praise and respect. The church was wrong then and is most capable of making profound errors in matters of both intellect and faith. History informs us so. Healthy dialogue is good for all sides in a discussion and exploration of the unknown.

Third, this is a made-up quote, but is clever and pungent:

            “The Prophecy:

 At the turn of the millennium plus twelve years, some

             Idiot on the internet will make up stuff and claim I said it.”

                                                                        ~Nostradamus, 1558

Uh huh!

And fourth, another gem from Albert Einstein:

            “Education is not the learning of facts,

             But the training of the mind to think.”

How true. And thinking is a willing use of the intellect to explore what was, what is, and how they fit together to help us understand both better. With that understanding comes a healthy preparation of what might be in our future.

Let us continue to work together to solve problems. Let us continue to reason together so we can explore what is best for us all. And let us know that each of us has a positive role to play in our explorations toward understanding.

If Congress won’t do this it is not because they can’t. We may have to do it for them.

Two years is a short time away for mid term Congressional elections.

November 29, 2012