Wednesday, April 6, 2011

An Open Letter to the Tea Party

Dear Tea Party,

First of all, your name is stupid.

Secondly, your grandstanding and inability to compromise is directly impeding my ability to get shit done.  I've had a meeting scheduled for Monday for over a week, and the person I'm meeting with had to call and cancel today because he can't put in travel requests due to the possibility of a shut down.  We're going to have to reschedule (again!), which is going to delay our getting under contract with the Air Force. 

Kindly STFU so those of us who actually do useful work in this country can get back to it.  

This stunt is going to end up costing this country money in the long run, and it REALLY pisses me off that our troops might not get paid this week.  That's some serious bullshit. 

Seriously, enough already.  I speak for basically everyone in this country who isn't a politician when I say, "The rest of us have work to do - get out of the way."

Love and kisses,
Amy

(PS - I know this isn't the usual tone or topic of this blog, but I'm too ticked off to keep quiet about this one.)

7 comments:

Heidi said...

Amen.

Bev said...

The national debt is "some serious bullshit" too. There have got to be cuts; we cannot continue to print money with abandon to hand out to all the world.

I agree with your strong feelings about military paychecks but know that not all expenditures have to be frozen. The military could be paid while much other spending is put on hold, but holding up their pay is a sure way to get support for those who refuse to make the tough decisions about where to cut expenditures.

This out of control spending has to stop or the suffering will be unimaginable at some point in the future.

Amy said...

I completely agree with you, Bev. The debt is out of control, and we have to do something. But this isn't the answer.

Want to hear something insane?? If they decide to shut down the government, all government employees will still report to work on Monday. Those who are essential will stay. Non-essential personnel (probably about 800,000 of them, based on what I've read) will be given a letter saying, "You're not essential, go home." And they will go home.

And they will be paid for the entire day.

We got a call today that one of the agencies we work with has some money that they have to spend or heads will roll - they don't actually NEED anything, but if they don't spend the money it will be cut from their budget next year, and no one wants to do that, so they'd better spend it! Insane.

We need to stop giving corporations a free ride - they should pay their share of taxes, too, just like the rest of us. We need to simplify EVERYTHING so it doesn't take 100 years worth of red tape to get anything done.

Everything's broken. Maybe they DO need to shut down, and just start over with a brand new government later.

Baby's up - gotta run. XOXOX, Amy

Bev said...

As an accountant and business manaager for public school districts and a community college, I'm well aware of the bizarre, irresponsible shenanigans that result in folks spending money on just anything because it would not roll over into the next year. But that's just one small part of the problem.

Many, if not most, public finance administrators lack creativity, work ethic, willingness, and more importantly motivation to create responsible budget processes. What's in it for them? That's the attitude. Successful, efficient, responsible, logical budgeting takes a lot of work and you have to be willing to take a lot of heat, neither of these qualities was seen in any with whome I worked throughout my career.

For years I have trembled with the knowledge of what I have observed firsthand because that is peanuts compared to the cost of financial inefficiencies in state and federal agencies.

Love your blog Amy; I admire the intelligence and courage you exhibit when bringing important issues to light and I so enjoy reading about your lovely family.

Amy said...

I think what's most frustrating is that everyone agrees that things need to change, but no one seems willing to step up and say, "I know it's unpopular, but here's how we're going to fix this..." A shutdown isn't an answer, it's a stunt. And it won't fix anything in the long term. *sigh*

Love that you read this little blog, Bev! And I've loved reading about your grandkids. I can tell how much they mean to you. Lucky kids to have such a devoted Grandma!

Rob Monroe said...

My thing is that yes, these rookies have been elected to shake things up, but they don't realize that they have years to do their work. It does not have to happen with THIS bill. There is no sense of compromise. I don't think that the Tea Partiers remember that a majority of THE COUNTRY voted in the president, and only a majority of their district voted them in.

I don't think that spending is the answer, but I think that compromise is. I think that understanding how things work in reality instead of just holding things up for attention is.

My brother will be sans pay on Monday from what we can tell. He is also likely the one that has to tell the same thing to the folks under him.

Bob said...

Have you noticed that Congress has not cut its pay nor have they been deemed "non-essential".
Let's start with everyone HAS to pay 5% of their income, people and corporations, then worry about more after that.
Also if you earn miminum wage or thousands per hour, you should pay social security on all of it. That goes for income from interest or dividends, too.
I could go on and on but Amy knows my rants by heart.

Love to the prettybabies,
Grandpa Minty