Tuesday, July 19, 2011

D.C. and Madison

An acquaintance called yesterday to talk a bit. He's with the Federal Government, works in D.C., yada. Career employee out there with 20++ years' service in.

We meandered around to the "debt ceiling" issue, and it became very clear that he thinks that a deal must be done; the Feds must be allowed to spend, yadayadayada. After all, if D.C. 'closed down,' all sorts of small businesses would be hurt. And literally hundreds of thousands of Fed employees would no longer have paychecks.

And the guy is something of a righty. Not "conservative", but a righty.

This morning, AOSHQ ran a quote:

[Peron] fled on a Paraguayan gunboat. But his successors could never get back to the minimum government which had allowed Argentina to become wealthy. Too many vested interests had been created: a huge, parasitical state, over-powerful unions, a vast army of public employees.

The mentality is identical to that of Madison, but on a scale unimagined in that hick burb. To the D.C. mind, chopping down the Federal tree will bring catastrophe to the country.......but mostly, to D.C.

How could the US live without it?

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