SUPER COMMITTEE...WHAT A JOKE!

2011

Is anybody alive today at all surprised that the Super Committee completely failed in the assigned role of identifying $1.2 trillion in spending cuts spread out over the next ten years? I will share one personal example of the lobbying pressure that was brought to bear on these lawmakers that helped cause their efforts to fail. I am a retiree from a major U.S. pharmaceutical company. I received a letter from my former employer several weeks ago that was written in an attempt to get as many as possible of their thousands of retirees to communicate in every way possible to their elected representatives to not allow budget cuts in Medicare Part D (the prescription drug plan) which were being considered by the committee.  The letter detailed all the negatives that would accrue if cuts in this plan were allowed. It detailed the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, the reduction in new miracle drugs, the pain and suffering that so many seniors would face without this needed benefit. Finally, the letter got to the real crux of the matter...that it would cost the industry tens of billions in lost revenues.

Now picture that same letter going out to retirees from every other pharmaceutical company...because that is exactly what I am sure happened. Imagine the number of emails, calls, and letters that this plea generated. Then imagine all other industries who feared they might be affected by these budget cuts creating similar strategies to block actions that might harm their own interests. Then add the extra burden of the expectations of the extremists in both parties that literally threaten to punish any of their own who cross the line toward any sort of compromise. Of course we all have to remember that this committee is simply a sub-set of our overall elected who have gotten themselves completely locked in partisan politics while our country sink further and further into a tragic collapse for our future generations.

Of course, the real blame lies at our own feet. We the voters just keep re-electing the same politicians to serve term after term. We see the evidence that they cannot or will not work for the majority of our citizen's best interests. We see the evidence that they cannot even spell the word compromise. We see the evidence that they are working primarily for the special interests. We see the evidence that getting elected is their most important goal. We see the evidence of so much personal corruption among them. Yet we fail to act to make the change with the only power we actually have...our ballot.

I am going to keep beating on the same drum...kick them all out and start over. If we begin in 2012 we can have an entirely new group of leaders by 2016. To those of you who say; "How can we be sure that the new folks we elect won't be as bad as those they replace?"...I would say; how can they possibly be any worse?

As usual these are my opinions. What do you think?

Mike Tower
Hendersonville, NC

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