Politics as usual . . . and just as nauseating!

I noted two news reports with displeasure and disgust today. The first summarized former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s time in office in financial terms.

In the 1,461 days that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) served as speaker of the House, the national debt increased by a total of $5.343 trillion ($5,343,452,800,321.37) or $3.66 billion per day ($3.657,394,113.84), according to official debt numbers published by the U.S. Treasury.

Pelosi was the 52nd speaker of the House. During her tenure, she amassed more debt than the first 49 speakers combined.

The total national debt did not climb above $5.343 trillion (the amount amassed during Pelosi’s four years as speaker) until Feb. 26, 1997, when Rep. Newt Gingrich (R.-Ga.) was serving as the nation’s 50th House speaker.

When Pelosi was sworn in on Jan. 4, 2007, the national debt stood at $8,670,596,242,973.04. At the close of business on Jan. 4, 2011, her last full day in the speakership, it stood at 14,014,049,043,294.41–an increase of $5,343,452,800,321.37.

Pelosi served as speaker for four full years, including one leap year, making her time in that office 1,461 days. On average, the federal government added $3.66 billion ($3,657,394,113.84) in new debt for each of those days.

Pelosi not only outstripped her predecessors in the total volume of debt added to the national debt during her tenure as speaker, but also in the rate at which new debt was added. In fact, Pelosi added debt at a rate more than three times faster than her nearest competitor.

There’s more at the link.

The second examined Republican contenders for the 2012 Presidential election.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney continues to hold the pole position for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination in the latest National Journal Political Insiders Poll. But the surprise runner-up to Romney was the two-term Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who moved up from fifth place when the last ranking of the potential GOP White House contenders was conducted a year ago.

Romney’s assets and liabilities are well known and haven’t changed much since last January. He has a national network of political and financial supporters left over from his unsuccessful run for the 2008 Republican nomination, a command of economic issues derived from his days in the private sector as a corporate turnaround artist, and the hard-won experience from have run for the presidency before.

But Romney must also figure out a way to convince Republican activists that the health care reform measure that he signed as governor of Massachusetts is different from the national health care reform passed by Pres. Obama and congressional Democrats that is anathema to the GOP rank-and-file. He also has a perceived authenticity deficit.

. . .

The standings were determined by Republican Insiders.

Again, there’s more at the link. Bold print is my emphasis.

The last line in the extract above sums up the problem for both parties. Pelosi and Romney are both ‘insiders’. There are too many like them, professional politicians who are familiar – and comfortable – with the ‘old way’ of doing things. Spend like drunken sailors; avoid any problem that might be unpopular with the electorate; ‘go along to get along’; compromise, prevaricate, equivocate, duck and dive . . .

I’m sick of insiders in politics!

What US politics needs is a thoroughgoing purge of insiders. We need to get rid of them, lock, stock and barrel, and elect politicians who will answer to the electorate and take the Constitution and their oaths of office seriously. Anything less will simply perpetuate the mess we’re already in!

I don’t really care which party those politicians come from. If someone’s a good person, honest, trustworthy, loyal to the Constitution, and not afraid to tackle the hard issues that confront us, I’ll vote for him or her, irrespective of party affiliation. A plague on the ‘insiders’ of both the Democratic and Republican parties! They’re all just as bad as one another, and there’s little or nothing to choose between them. We need fresh blood, and new leaders who are unpolluted by the malaise of their forebears.

Out with the insiders! Now!

Peter