Birds Gotta Fly, Fish Gotta Swim.....

As the clock ticks on a shutdown of the Federal Government, I am amused by some of my Facebook friends' views on the matter.  Folks like to use Facebook to spout off on what ails them, and I'm no exception.  But I've seen a few of my Dem friends rallying around their flag and blaming where we are on Speaker Boehner.  Doing so shows a remarkable lack of sophistication from a group of folks who usually claim to be so darn smart (whilst we Repubs are the knuckle-draggers).

The Tea Party candidates were elected by their constituents to cut the size of government.  They are exerting pressure to do what they were elected to to.

The Liberal Democrats in the Congress were elected by their constituents to protect spending and the social welfare architecture.

Moderates in both parties were elected by their constituents to find compromise.

To my estimation, Congress is doing EXACTLY what we (all of us) elected them to do.  It is acting EXACTLY as it should be expected to act.  Anyone who hopes or wishes for better is naive.

But--this does not take Congress off the hook in a search for villains.  It simply takes THIS Congress off the hook.  What cannot be explained adequately by even the most sophisticated observer of Congress is why the previous Congress--which had majorities in the House and Senate--FAILED to pass a budget which would have averted ALL OF THIS?  If you apply the logic above, you are left with the inescapable conclusion that the Democrats controlling the Executive and the Legislative Branches would have done what they were elected to do, and that they controlled all the levers of power to do exactly that.  But they failed. Worse, they failed in a most cravenly political manner--they pushed off passing a budget because they believed it would impact their election results in 2010.  How'd that strategy work for you, Nancy, Harry and Barack?