Leaders Out Of Touch With Economic Reality
Politico reports that almost half the members of Congress are millionaires compared to just 1% of the subject population that they rule. Could this be one of the reasons why the Washington elite is so out of touch with the concerns of the average American?
The economy and pocket book issues are the main concerns of the electorate, regardless of whether they are currently employed or not. The unemployed see their ship sinking rapidly and those still employed are seeing their standard of living decaying at an alarming rate. While the average down on his luck American is worried about basic daily issues, the elite rulers of Washington are busily engaged on planetary quests to reduce carbon emissions and tell other nations how to conduct their affairs. The recent election results prove that voters believe that their basic concerns are not even on the “to do” list of the Washington elite.
Among the highlights: Two-hundred-and-thirty-seven members of Congress are millionaires. That’s 44 percent of the body – compared to about 1 percent of Americans overall.
CRP says California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa is the richest lawmaker on Capitol Hill, with a net worth estimated at about $251 million. Next in line: Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), worth about $244.7 million; Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), worth about $214.5 million; Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), worth about $209.7 million; and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), worth about $208.8 million.
All told, at least seven lawmakers have net worths greater than $100 million, according to the Center’s 2008 figures.
“Many Americans probably have a sense that members of Congress aren’t hurting, even if their government salary alone is in the six figures, much more than most Americans make,” said CRP spokesman Dave Levinthal.
Do The Obese Have The “Right” To Become More Obese?
In an attempt to help those who cannot help themselves from becoming obese, the government has implemented new legislative fiats requiring restaurants to post the calorie count of each item on their menus. Unfortunately, the heavy hand of government dictate is producing counter productive results. Consider the following study showing that forcing restaurants to post calorie information has actually had no beneficial impact but instead, has perversely resulted in consumers consuming more empty calories, not less.
After Calorie Warnings, Diners Order More Calories
Before food czars get any more punch-happy on their own Kool-Aid, they need to be purged of the illusion that their laws are actually working. Last month, New York University and Yale medical professors published a ground-breaking study, which shows that New York City’s law requiring fast food chains to post calories on their menus doesn’t reduce their customers’ caloric intake.
Sixteen municipalities including California, Seattle, and Portland have passed laws similar to NYC’s, and the Menu Education and Labeling Act, which would impose labeling regulations nationwide, is pending in Congress.
But the researchers’ most striking finding was that customers actually ordered more caloric items after the law went into effect than before, despite the fact that nine out of ten customers who reported using the information said they made healthier choices as a result of the law.
But the problem may also be more complex. It’s possible that people who are less educated may actually think they are eating more healthily than they are notwithstanding the calorie numbers staring them in the face.information and that 15% said they used it. But these figures demonstrate the law’s failure—not success. Despite the fact that people were readily presented with
The Department is boasting that 56% of customers saw the caloric the nutritional information, 85% of them ignored it.
The lawmakers who enacted the calorie posting regulations succumbed to the fallacy that everyone thinks like them. They probably reasoned that because they would make healthier choices if presented with nutritional information, everyone else would as well. But maybe what consumers actually want is a delicious meal at a low price.
So what’s the next step for an imperial government gone mad with regulations and micro control over the lives of their disconnected citizens?? You can see the next step coming. For those of us unable to think properly, based on bureaucratic notions of proper eating habits, the only option left is to impose more draconian rules. If fat people can’t stop themselves from gorging on food, the next logical legislative fiat would necessarily involve requiring restaurants to forcible eject or refuse to serve those individuals that the government “deems to be obese”.
I wonder how that will work out?
Change We Didn’t Need
Here’s an interesting article from The Washington Post explaining why the 2008 election meant a lot less than it seemed to at the time. As the country discovers how deceptive, empty and expensive the promises of “change” are turning out to be, disenchantment is growing by the minute. Worth a full read…
In the aftermath of last year’s Obama sweep, we heard endlessly about its fundamental, revolutionary, transformational nature. How it was ushering in an FDR-like realignment for the 21st century in which new demographics — most prominently, rising minorities and the young — would bury the GOP far into the future. One book proclaimed “The Death of Conservatism,” while the more modest merely predicted the terminal decline of the Republican Party into a regional party of the Deep South or a rump party of marginalized angry white men.
This was all ridiculous from the beginning. The ‘08 election was a historical anomaly. A uniquely charismatic candidate was running at a time of deep war weariness, with an intensely unpopular Republican president, against a politically incompetent opponent, amid the greatest financial collapse since the Great Depression. And still he won by only seven points.
Designed By :
