Another Good Reason To Go To Church On Sundays

This past weekend Patti and I weren’t scheduled to teach Sunday School so we decided to go to church on Saturday night and spend Sunday morning reading the New York Times and watching the Sunday morning TV news programs.

I should have gone to church.

The Sunday morning talking heads were about the SuperCommittee and their lack of being able to find common ground to come up with a debt reduction deal.
What was most frustrating was that this was a group of people who were hand-selected to perform a task within a specified timeframe with a defined outcome. They knew what they had to do, and as of the writing of this have not done their job. But the representatives from the committee who were all but resigned to not having a deal come together, refused to call their inability to find a resolution as a failure. Where I come from, they have failed. I had a hard time believing that they were trying to pass their work off as anything else. With their failure they have once again told the American people, and the rest of the world, that our government no longer works.

I should have gone to church.

They also were saying that their failure would not affect the financial markets. Can they really be that out of touch? A few weeks ago I was invited to the White House for a Business Forward and White House Business Council session on job creation. One of the economists who spoke showed us the effect on our GDP when Congress was unable to reach agreement on the debt ceiling. The statistics shown were that the negative impact on GDP was greater than even 9/11. To think that such a visible indication that we cannot govern past our differences wouldn’t have an impact on the financial markets is beyond naïve, it shows how out of touch our representatives with the real world. As of this writing, the Dow is down 300+ points.

I really should have gone to church.

This morning the news headlines are now saying that Congress will try and repeal the law will automatically enact the $1.3 trillion in cuts that the SuperCommittee couldn’t handle. If that is the case then the Supercommittee should be known as the SuperDuperCommittee. I am appalled that we have let it come to this.

Next time I will definitely go to church!

I have tweeted or written to each of the SuperCommittee members to express my displeasure in their failure. If you are so inclined to do so, here they are for you to reach out to as well:

Democrats Republicans Senate members:

• Patty Murray, Washington, Co-Chair @PattyMurray
• Max Baucus, Montana
• John Kerry, Massachusetts
• Jon Kyl, Arizona @SenJonKyl
• Rob Portman, Ohio @robportman
• Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania @SenToomey

House members:

• Xavier Becerra, California @ RepBecerra
• Jim Clyburn, South Carolina
• Chris Van Hollen, Maryland @ChrisVanHollen
• Jeb Hensarling, Texas, Co-Chair @RepHensarling
• Fred Upton, Michigan @RepFredUpton
• Dave Camp, Michigan @RepDaveCamp

I'll definitely see you next Sunday in church!