Hypocrisy in Congress is outrageous, infuriating
Trying to get a straight answer out of Republicans and Democrats is impossible these days.
The lack of sincerity in Washington, D.C., was palpable Tuesday. Over and over, I could not get a single elected official I spoke with, neither Republican nor Democrat, to give me even one idea for cutting spending right now. Not one.
I made tons of suggestions that could be implemented Wednesday.
Why do we have huge military bases in Japan and Europe? These are just leftovers from another era. There are whole defense projects that not even the Defense Department wants.
How about farm subsidies? Ethanol subsidies? Nope.
How about Medicare negotiating with drug companies? Nope. I heard from one poll that the drug companies might move elsewhere. Where? We are the only country that lets them gouge us. I heard that the drug companies wouldn't feel compelled to spend money to develop new drugs. I wanted to scream: Did you ever hear about patent cliffs?
Outrageous.
The Republicans were absolutely no better than the Democrats. In fact, they were worse. When I stipulated that I am not interested in talking about raising revenues because they say over and over that the issue is spending, they still talked about raising revenues. When I insisted that they talk about what they say they insisted on talking about, they wouldn't. They simply wouldn't.
I could never get away with that level of hypocrisy.
Ever.
Infuriating.
I came away thinking that there is nothing the Republicans won't do to be sure that the 2% don't pay more, including throw people out of work and make everyone else pay, which is what's going to happen if they don't compromise.
And the president? He has no serious plan to cut spending either -- but at least he is willing to give something that helps balance the budget (read on TheStreet).
I am going to repeat this so it is really clear: NO Republican offered me anything to cut spending in the near-term. Not one.
If you are serious about spending cuts, you have to be able to offer one.
My conclusion: Republicans aren't any more serious than Democrats are, but at least the Democrats are asking someone to help solve the deficit, the cohort that got the big break on taxes when things weren't so hot.
Jim Cramer is a co-founder of TheStreet and contributes daily market commentary to the financial news network's sites. Follow his trades for Action Alerts PLUS, which Cramer co-manages as a charitable trust.
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Apparently, when members of Congress signed the Norquist Pledge, it violated a major statute in the job or role of being an elected member of Congress. It exceeds the ability to honor and support the will of the people who elected them. In short- it negates the elected Official's ability to serve. Members of Congress who didn't sign the Pledge can force the signers into the hallway, conduct business and carry on without them. Further, registered voters in the states of the pledge signers can have them removed for the same dishonorable reason.
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Now I find it amazing that not one Republican you talked to had a single idea. I would love you to name names. If they are my state, I would work to throw them out of Congress. There is so much waste in DC, it would be easy to name 100 things to cut although even most of those wouldn't solve the problem. You have to cut the big money hogs to make progress on our deficit and debt or else it is just a matter of time before we become Greece without the benefit of an EU to bail us out.
Eventually we have to get over this ego that we are the US and nothing bad will ever happen to us. Debt is debt whether you are a family, a 3rd world country, a member of the EU, or the USA.
I am sure our leaders are more secure in not cutting any funding to retain the status quo, than cutting funding on something that might upset a group of people who will vote them out.
Let's look at the big picture when we do our reporting next time...
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