Sunday, April 7, 2013

America's Governing Class and the Sequester

[If members of Congress and the executive branch want to give up a pittance of their salary “in solidarity” with the people who are being affected by sequestration,] that is their prerogative. But it really straddles the line between silly and offensive grandstanding. Given that this entire package of cuts was essentially a game of Russian Roulette in which the Washington political class pointed the pistol at most of the rest of the country and then decided to see what would happen if they just decided to pull the trigger, this seems like a particularly tone-deaf way of claiming awareness of everyone else’s pain.

It reminds me, sort of, of the House Republican and No Labels-supported “no budget, no pay” movement, which similarly missed the point. None of these people rely on their paychecks to make the rent or feed a family or pay down crushing debt. The Senate is full of millionaires; the House only looks middle-class in comparison. Instead of calling attention to the real effects of a pointless and intentionally destructive spending cut, comfortable people voluntarily “giving up” a pittance of their salaries only distracts.

  Salon
So, maybe that’s the aim.

And, I don't think it straddles any line.  It's full-on offensive grandstanding.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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