The Daily Show turns its attention to how the US Congress can act fast when it wants to benefit itself. In this series of three short clips, the show looks at how quickly it moved to exempt the Federal Aviation Administration from the rules of the sequester so that they could recall air traffic controllers from their furloughs so that flight delays were eliminated just in time to let members of Congress go on their vacations. Meanwhile, much worthier programs where sequester cuts had harmed many people were left unchanged.
I wonder how many such self-serving stunts it thinks it can pull. Surely there must be a limit to how much even an admittedly passive electorate can tolerate?
(These clips were aired on May 1, 2013. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)
I’ve head that many freshmen Senators and Congressmen/women go to Washington with high ideals, but are rapidly assimilated into a borderline corrupt system in which you go along to get along. Then of course there is the revolving door of Congress-to-industry….
Certainly the plans of vacationing CongressCritters are important but more to the point is the travel of Very Important BusinessBums who pay the consulting fees for various lobbyists and also pony up when they get those important imprecations for political contributions to fund the next round of Congressional elections.
Now if only the beneficiaries of government-funded social programs such as seniors, children, and the perpetually poor could somehow help pay their fair share of government, they also might get some extra consideration from Congress…Hell, Congress might even find some way to buy these unfortunates plane tickets for their own vacations from their dire existences.
In the meantime, I guess they’ll just have to settle for more Twinkies, Television, and an extra squeeze on the old TeaBag.
I’m keeping an interested eye on Elizabeth Warren for the exact reasons that Matt G. stated.
There are a few people who managed to survive Congress without completely selling out: Bernie Sanders, Russ Feingold, Dennis Kucinich. So it can be done.
Good point, Mano. I’m a big fan of Sanders and Kucinich. I’m not familiar with Mr. Feingold … I’ll have to learn more about him.
Such a small minority. Sigh ….
Hooray for Steven Nolder! (Interviewed in the third clip.) He must be a great boss to work for …
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/04/06/federal-public-defender-cuts-own-job.html