Dwelling on the Negative

I remember laughing when an old- timer used to tell us that the media controls the mood of the country. I must’ve been pretty naïve back then because they do play a major role on how Americans view current events.

This morning I waited patiently to hear something about the good job numbers of last week or that a million people have signed up for Obamacare. Joe Scarborough made sure that President Obama’s low approval number was going to be the main topic. The president’s approval numbers are as high as 45% in one poll as low as 38% in another and most of it’s got to do with the website rollout. Congress has a new low approval rating of 13% so that’s still gives the president a 25% margin over Congress. I believe the American people have a very low opinion of a dysfunctional federal government, and everyone associated with it. These polls are just a snapshot, and the president's numbers will improve as more people sign up for affordable health care. Joe Scarborough doesn’t see how the president can get his approval numbers up, but I’m not sure he wants to see them go up. The president could get a couple of good results on foreign policy when the Syrians destroy all their chemical weapons and to deal with Iran goes better than expected. On the home front, there are signs that the economy is improving and if the president keeps rallying for middle- class issues like raising the minimum wage and doing something about income inequality; he will be rewarded. I know Congress is still  a deterrent, but John Podesta was hired because he’s a master of executive authority.

I don’t know what the panel on ‘Morning Joe’ expected from the budget deal that was announced yesterday. The best you can say about it is that if it passes, the compromise will avoid a government shutdown. I’m pretty disappointed because Democrats did not make extending unemployment benefits to 1.3 million Americans a priority. The GOP stuck to their no taxes pledge. We have a low bar these days because all we want from our representatives is to talk to each other and don’t shut down the government. You’ve got to love the Republicans’, they got their revenue to make this deal work by making newly hired federal employees make larger contributions to their pension fund, did the same for the retired military and added to the cost of an airline ticket by raising fees and not taxes on the top 1%.

Joe Scarborough had to laugh off Obama’s handshake with Raul Castro controversy or defend John McCain’s handshake with Omar Qaddafi, Richard Nixon’s handshake with Chairman Mao and Fidel Castro and Rumsfeld’s handshake with Saddam Hussein. Raul Castro is a ruthless dictator but we deal with those people all the time. The Cuban trade embargo is against our economic interest. The Jewish lobby and Cuban Americans have a lot of political clout.

Tidbits

Big J, I believe Bill Kennedy of Woodsboro was the name of that person who used to write letters –to- the- editor contradicting the local conservatives.

Yesterday I received my voter-registration card, and I folded it and tried to find space in my wallet for it. Why do we even need it anymore? We have to show a driver’s license anyway, so it’s just a duplication. It seems like we could save some money, trees, and postage by doing away with those oversized cards, after we use up the current supply.