Those Frickin' Congresscritters

Apropos of the Michael Ramirez toon above… Most of you Gentle Readers have heard this by now and I'm remiss in not posting earlier this week about my favorite soap opera (which has been discontinued). But here's the lead paragraph from an occasional e-mail update Mike Dunn, president of the Air Force Association, sends out from time to time:

AFA Members, Congressional Staffers, Civic leaders, and DOCA members, as you may know, this week the Senate voted to strip F-22 funds from the Authorization bill. Following that, both Chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees announced they would follow suit and not force additional F-22s on the Administration. AFA, of course, believes the Air Force needs more F-22s. We made our case often to anyone who would listen. We did our best to counter the mounds of misinformation on the aircraft. However, we did not prevail. I can only hope that years in the future we won't be forced to say: "We wish we had more of these aircraft."

General Dunn's last line is both massive understatement and somewhat wishful thinking. I'm sure there are already many, many people wishing we had more of these fighters. Like those guys who might have to go to war in 30 year old aircraft…

―:☺:―

I was gratified to hear on the news last evening that there will NOT be a vote before the August congressional recess on yet another half-assed but massive boondoggle legislation our congresscritters haven't read. And my hat is off to the Blue Dog Dems for digging in their heels and refusing to vote for yet MORE budget-busting programs of dubious value.

Not that I would actually know the specific value or lack thereof in the two or three proposed health care bills, as I haven't read them… like, oh… maybe 299.995 million other Americans. And I can guar-an-dang-tee ya most if not all of your congresscritters haven't read the bills, either. Following the health care debate is a massive game of "Who Do You Trust?" (a dated reference, that) and I damned sure don't trust the Democrats to deliver meaningful health care "reform." I don't trust the damned Republicans all that much, either. I'm of the opinion they're all beholden to some interest or another… the trick is figuring out whose interests best align with mine.

All that said… I'm not really one to weigh in on gub'mint-provided health care as I've been served by the military health system in one way or another for all but about 16 years of my life. And that system has been very, very good to me. So far.

(toon by Chip Bok)