While You Were Out - A Memo To The American Political Class

While you were all out campaigning over the past month or so, the following events happened that might be of interest to you and which you may not be aware of or sensitive to:

- While you were out campaigning, many of you spending millions of dollars of your own wealth to get jobs that generally pay less $200,000 a year, more than 50 U.S. troops were killed in action in Afghanistan, bringing to 417 that have been killed there so far this year (Source: iCasualties website)

- While you were out campaigning and spending billions of dollars of other people's wealth to get jobs that generally pay less than $200,000 a year, the Federal government probably added another $110 billion to the national debt, over $900 worth of debt burden for every U.S. household.

- While you were out campaigning and slinging mud and childish accusations at each other, at least six American citizens were killed as a direct result of the Mexican drug cartels, 105 tons of marijuana bound for the United States was seized by Mexican police in Tijuana, Mexico, and a major drug smuggling tunnel, running from a warehouse in Mexico under the border to a warehouse in the U.S. was shut down.

- While you were out campaigning for jobs that will put your salary into the upper 95% percentile of all American workers, over 1.8 million newly unemployed Americans filed first time unemployment claims.

- While you were out campaigning to keep a plush job you already have or get a plush job from another politician, over 14 million Americans still have no job.

- While you were out campaigning, preening in front of all varieties of news media, most American students suffered through another month within a failing public education system.

- While you were out campaigning, flying and driving to numerous campaign stops, the country went another month without a comprehensive national energy strategy that reduces our dependence on foreign energy supplies while being kinder to the environment.

- While you were out campaigning and telling us how much you supported the middle class, you neglected to renew the expiring tax cuts before you left town that will add thousands of dollars to middle class tax bills in 2011.

- While you were out campaigning, posturing and "energizing your base," America became more divided as ever as a result of your actions, words, slurs, insults, attack advertising and the derogatory efforts of your respective "friends" in the media.

But most importantly, while you were out campaigning, Americans started to realize that whether you are in Washington or not, nothing ever changes. This past month when you were not in session was really not any different than when you are in session. Issues are rarely ever addressed, reality based solutions never materialize, and those legislative actions that you do somehow pass such as health care reform, financial regulation reform, and economic stimulus packages have proven to be failures or are well on their way to failure.

We suggest that when you do decide to mosey on back to your jobs in D.C., you consider moving on some of the steps laid out in below:

1) Start reducing the Federal budget by 10% a year for the next five years in order to get the national debt under control so that each American household is not on the hook for another $900 every month that you do not act.

2) Reinstate the expiring tax cuts and make them permanent, returning our wealth to working Americans, the ones that worked and earned it, and helping to starve the Federal bureaucracy of funds so that it shrinks to do only the most essential tasks needed by its citizens.

3) Enact campaign finance reforms that can withstand a legal challenge and which allow only individual Americans to contribute to election campaigns, essentially freezing out corporations, unions, PACS, and other organizations from the campaign funding cycle. It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to attain political jobs that pay so little in relation to the amount spent to get the jobs.

4) Enact a comprehensive, non-political problem solving process to finally develop an effective national energy strategy and policy.

5) Enact a comprehensive, non-political problem solving process to finally develop an effective national drug policy that balances freedom, protection, and treatment while bankrupting the violent drug cartels around the world.

6) Enact a comprehensive, non-political problem solving process to finally fix the failure that are most of our public schools.

7) Enact a comprehensive, non-political problem solving process to develop a real solution to the problem of escalating health care costs in this country, identifying the true root causes and attacking those root causes with the right solutions, a process not undertaken under Obama Care.

8) Start bringing back the majority of U.S. troops stationed overseas and develop a realistic and workable Afghanistan strategy. This strategy needs to take into account the recently disclosed close ties of the Afghan government with Iran, the rampant corruption within the Afghan government, and the double dealing of the Pakistan government which says they are our allies but who secretly support terrorist groups and individuals fighting our ground troops across the border.

9) Require all members of the political class to take and pass a basic course on economics in order to avoid implementing the failed economic stimulus programs of the past few years such as Cash For Clunkers.

While you were out, it has gotten really crazy, with ordinary Americans finally demanding real answers and real solutions. It does not look like they are willing to accept the same old behavior that we have been giving them over the past decades. Thus, while you were out, the American public started to tune in to your shortcomings and failures. Hurry back soon or they may decide they do not need you at all.