Ok, You Guys. Knock it Off!

unreformable, obstinate, wayward, cussed, obdurate, unrepentant, unregenerate, refractory, perverse, stubborn, contrary, infantile, boneheaded, moronic, meatheaded, infuriating, off-pissing
 
And these are the nicer adjectives that come to mind when describing the antics of the insufferable politicians in our embarrassingly asinine nation’s capitol.

When I was younger and stupider, I was a “right fighter.”  I would argue my position relentlessly and endlessly, even with glaring examples of my wrongness dangling in my face.  Unless and until my opponent conceded unequivocally, my heels remained dug, my guns remained stuck and my mind, what there was of it, remained as rigid as a cinder block.

Fortunately, mostly for me, but also for those who had to try to live and function around me, I learned with age to entertain the unlikely possibility that there could be another way of looking at the situations.  My teacher? A brutal combination of hearing the words of my parents in spite of my efforts to the contrary; overhearing myself being described in terms that make the list above seem complimentary; and learning the concept of win-win.

Somebody must have noticed by now that the so-called leaders in our Congress are acting like recalcitrant ninnies while the rest of us sit trembling in fear of what will happen when our national finances enter the same territory as the finances of Joe the Plumber and the disgraced educators in Atlanta Public Schools. 

Now that I have temporarily plunged headlong back into the odiferous darkness of corporate America, I am all too conscious of the fact that I am paid to spin the English language to the benefit of my master client, just as Boehner and Company choose ad nauseum to convert the word “revenues” to “taxes,” regardless of context.   Now that I am being influenced by the results compiled from focus groups conducted by so-called public affairs experts and compelled to couch my words so as not to step on the  land mines of loaded buzz words, I realize that the game of chicken being played in DC has a bunch of turkeys as players.

I fail to understand how the Republicans live with themselves, knowing that millions of disabled and/or elderly citizens could possibly go without their Social Security payments because their billionaire corporate ringmasters don’t want to go back to their pre-George W tax levels .  Is the concept of compromise only useful to them when it is applied to the Democrats?

It is time for the children in Washington to put on their big-boy and big-girl underwear and get on with the business of grown-ups.  I am all for spending cuts.  They have been needed for decades anyway, but the times call for the same austerity in government as they do for the mini-budgets of normal people like you and me.  But to ask the elderly and sick to bear the brunt of everything while fat cats and their kittens continue to amass millions is just wrong. 

And what does Boehner do?  That paragon of conservative virtue stomped his drunken big foot like the school ground bully he’s trying to be and ran home to pout.  Good job, Johnny!  Good job.

NOTE TO PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Don't even think about caving to these megalomaniacs!  The majority of the people -- the ones who voted for you and the ones who didn't -- are behind you on this one.