Crisis here, Crisis there, Crisis EVERYWHERE! Are we being subjected to crisis desensitization?

By: Passionate Pachyderms on Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 12:13pm  

 

Americans have been inundated over the past several weeks with reports encompassing every possible terrifying consequence imaginable in the event the debt ceiling isn’t raised,  and the United states loses its AAA credit rating.

While I have no doubt this is a very serious issue, and certainly one worthy of the attention of American citizens,  the unrelenting fear mongering being shoveled forcefully down the throats of anyone with a pulse, should perhaps be a huge warning siren to us all.

We have been hearing about our massive debt, and how time is running out, nonstop since the last crisis the Obama administration created, and the one before that, and the one before that.

This administration has been nothing but crisis, controversy, and one  scandalous, unconstitutional, illegal example of  complete lack of leadership ability after another.  Ask yourself, how is it possible for one administration to be so completely inept, so totally out of touch, so blissfully ignorant of the will of tens of millions of American citizens?

Why haven’t our elected representatives stood up and represented us? Why haven’t they put a stop to the ridiculous Executive orders being signed almost daily? Why haven’t they loudly condemned actions like “Fast and Furious”, or the fact that Obama is selling executive positions for campaign contributions? Why haven’t they put a stop to any of it? For that matter, Why does every crisis seem to explode after 3:00 on Friday afternoons? But the biggest question is, when the administration is busy making sure we’re all paying attention to their crisis de’jour, and showing  it to us via their left hand, what exactly is their right hand busy doing that they don’t want us to see, know about, or pay attention to?

The fact is Americans have begun feeling so overwhelmed and fatigued with being in the constant  crisis modes that this administration seems  able to create “at will,” each one,  more earth shattering, all encompassing, life altering, shocking, worrisome, and fretful than the last, that it’s easy to see how many of us have begun to suffer a degree of something akin to post traumatic stress.

For the past three years, we’ve been subjected to constant crisis, and urged almost subliminally to become more annoyed,  more concerned, more outraged, and yes even more angry, with each passing outrage,  as the administration continues to poke constantly like a pestilent unruly child at the hornet’s nest that has become the American people.  More and more, we have begun to overlook or  ignore  actions and behaviors that once would have been seen as completely unacceptable, perhaps even impeachable offences.  

Now however, it leads one to wonder if those actions, seen as “unacceptable” not so long ago, are now viewed as “unimportant”, or  “not worth getting riled up over,” because we’ve been effectively desensitized with each repeated poke.  Perhaps we’ve become so battle fatigued, so accustomed to claims that “The sky is falling,” that if or when , God forbid,  the time actually comes that the sky really is about to fall, none of us will see it coming, or be prepared for what follows. We’ll be so conditioned to the inflated and/or false claims of disaster and calamity, we’ll just continue buzzing around,  giving the warning signs little more than a passing glance, and an utterance of “again?”

Maybe that’s the whole idea, who knows?  Then again, maybe not, but it’s certainly a thought worthy of consideration… After all, what is that rule of Obama’s mentor,  Sal Alinsky, “Anything that drags on too long becomes a drag?” Or maybe it’s Raum Emmanuel’s glib comment, “never let a good crisis go to waste” that I’m thinking of…  Then again, perhaps it’s both.

 

Let’s take  a deep breath, apply some realistic perspective to the situation, and use some much needed but completely absent, simple common sense as we gaze upon the picture that has been painted for us. While I realize due to the enormity of debt we are discussing, this rather simplistic analogy may be flawed, but, stick with me here, and consider it food for thought.

Conceptually, a budget is a budget, it really doesn’t matter if the budget is that of a 16 year old who just got their first job, a drivers license, and wants a car, a family of four in need of a bigger home, or an individual that needs to pay their rent and feed himself. The basic concept is the same.  

A. How much $$ comes in,

B. How much $$ is paid out for essentials, and  to whom?  Note: the following are not generally considered essentials, Pizza hut, Beer, new WII games, cell phones with data services, cable with premium movie channels, music or movie downloads, vacations, jet skis, boats, etc.                

C. How much is left over for other things?

 Prioritize the “other things” from most important to least important, along with their costs.    Decide what you can’t afford and can live without.  If you find A isn’t enough to cover B and C, you have two choices, reduce B and C or increase A.

If increasing  income isn’t an option, as is the case with the current debt crisis, than the only option is to reduce expenses. It really isn’t that hard!

What to cut, begin with the least essential , for example; cut studies that determine which brand of catsup runs faster, as well as those that determine why cow manure stinks, and other similarly ridiculous expenditures.  Speaking of manure and stink, cut OBAMACARE, followed by, pay and benefit raises for  Senators, Congressional, Representatives, Czars, and the President himself.  Continue with cutting taxpayer funded date nights to NYC, and all non essential, non State required travel on Air Force One.

Very few people in the united states get more than 30 days paid vacation, (240 hours) in any given year. The U.S. president shouldn’t be the exception.  Additionally, most employers don’t pay for their employees and their  family’s vacation expenses. The American people shouldn’t be forced to foot the bill for  “off time” expenses incurred by the president and  the first family beyond that allotted 30 day limit. This would include; time, security, lodging and travel expenses incurred to visit personal friends and distant relations under the guise of “State Visits” while in foreign lands.  It would also include, golf outings, shopping trips to France, visits to Mecca, and Campaigning or political fund raising for anything or anyone.  Those expenses, should be the complete financial responsibility of the individual, his/her family members, and their Campaign accounts. Czars, Congressional Representatives, and Senators should  also be limited to the 30 day/ 240 hour vacation time and expense limits.

 

 

Obviously these are just a few items that would significantly reduce unnecessary, excessive spending, feel free to add to the list as you see fit, but you get the idea.

The point is, this simply doesn’t have to be as difficult as it has become.  Before politicians start threatening the disabled and elderly with Social Security cuts, causing those individuals significant emotional distress for no reason other than their own narcissistic ideology.  Doing this is sick, it’s twisted, It’s disgraceful, and it certainly is not acceptable to the American people as a whole.

While this president may believe the American people are too stupid to know anything about budgets, debt, or having to make less money, stretch further, in an environment where everything costs twice what it used to, and his minions may have convinced him to believe that Americans don’t care about any of it, and aren’t paying attention anyway, as Americans, We know better.

Perhaps that is why the President is so frustrated,  why things aren’t going his way, why his approval ratings plummet each time were forced to listen to more of his lies, or watch him dance around answering the questions we are asking. Perhaps we’re not quite as stupid as he’d like to believe we are after all..

But, I digress, I’m not claiming conspiracy, or impending catastrophe around the next corner, I’m just saying, be watchful of what is happening beneath the surface of what’s being presented to you.  Don’t allow the repeated crisis De’jour  to skew your perspective of what is RIGHT and what is wrong.  What you see as unacceptable today,  shouldn’t be markedly different than what you believed unacceptable six months ago.  If it is, ask yourself why, if the only answer you can come up with is because you’re tired of hearing about it, tired of fighting it, and sick of dealing with it, guess what?  They’ve already won. Just something to think about, and yet one more thing to make you go hummmm.