Stance and Balance

I actually liked peas, not an especially picky eater as a kid.  But you get the point.  So did President Obama when he chided Congress in mid-July that there were budgetary issues to deal with (that one was the debt ceiling) and that he wouldn’t let them off the hook (which in the end he did).  And sure enough the resulting super committee failed in its work.  At that time he said no point putting it off six months, “pull off the Band-Aid…eat your peas”.  Eat your peas.  Supper isn’t over yet.  Will it ever be?

Case in point is not the large issue this week.  Rather, my anger yesterday over a press release from my U.S. Representative Rick Larsen (D-WA 2) taking credit for delaying the closure of the Everett, WA mail sorting center for six months.  Many others in Congress were doing the same and this is uniformly how the Postmaster General chose to deal with the pile of letters.  At the same time, USPO is taking in about 93 cents for every dollar it spends.  No sensible business would do this, at least for very long.  Certainly not put it off six months (see above, getting the thread?).  The USPO fix ought to be simple:  their revenue is a user fee.  A one cent increase for a first class stamp in early January?  Make it five cents.

(This is just what I wrote to Rick on the super-duper e-mail system Congress has put in place that checks my address again my nine digit zip code as authentication to communicate with my elected representative.  At least give me a cookie so I just do that once?)

Arguably, this Congress is the worse ever.   Both sides (even though one is right, whoops, correct!).  So is there room in the center for the “Eat Your Peas” party?   With enough strength to let both edges continue to hold breath, turn blue in the face, and pass out?