The Sorry State Of

Our Federal Government

To the Editor:

I have had enough with Washington, the constant bickering and the total lack of tangible progress. This situation would not happen in the private sector, where total inaction would quickly lead to a disaster for any profit-oriented enterprise.

The so-called Washington “Super Committee” is coming empty handed as it approaches its Wednesday, November 23, deadline. All members of this committee are equally responsible and should be severely reprimanded. As a US citizen, with a stake in the well-being of our country what can you do?

Here are some suggestions: Ask all members of the Super Committee to resign en-masse from their elected office. Require an immediate cut to their pay and all benefits, including retirement and medical insurance. Sequester all members incommunicado (collective confinement) in the Guantanamo Bay resort until results are produced.

What if, by some kind of miracle, the Super Committee does produce a document claiming results? In that situation, we, the people, should watch out for total transparency, which obviously excludes the government frequent use of the smoke and mirrors approach.

There should be no “mumbo jumbo” in the resolution.

For example, Super Committee, do not tell us you are going to save $2 trillion dollars over the next 15 years; are those savings front-loaded (i.e., projected to happen in the early years), or back-loaded (most likely in the later years)?

This is a worthless statement unless we know how much savings there will be in the first year of the plan, the fifth year of the plan, and the tenth year of the plan. This concept is simply called “burning rate” and indicates the evolution of the total annual savings as time goes by.

There should be no accounting gimmicks. Ordinary people manage their own finance on a cash basis while well-managed enterprises do the same; so the Super Committee should limit its list of savings to those that are on a cash basis. There are plenty of creative accountants in Washington, but now is not the time to interfere.

My fellow citizens, it is time to bombard our elected officials with something less than a joyful season’s greetings card if you do not want our country to end up in the same situation as Greece finds itself in.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dom Nocturne

36 Key Rock Road, Newtown                                 November 22, 2011