Well, you’ve probably seen it already, or at least heard about it: So-called Arizona Governor Jan Brewer shaking her finger at President Obama and apparently chastising 
him on the tarmac at the Mesa, Arizona airport.
Okay, politicians criticize the President regularly, but generally they do it solo. But this broad, in public, like an old time school marm. Maybe she doesn’t keep track of the numbers but the latest available show that Arizona residents, governments and businesses received $64.4 billion in federal money in fiscal 2010, more than double what the state received in 2001. That translated into federal government spending of about $10,080 per person in Arizona, just under the national average of $10,460.
Maybe Congress approves the budget and state allocations, but it’s the Executive Branch that has the power to do those special things for states and politicians; everything from dollars to appearances when needed.
Among stupid politicians, Brewer wins the award for today; and notwithstanding the increasingly silly things the GOP candidates are saying, as well as Congressmen from both sides of the aisle in Washington, she may well hold that “honor” for a few weeks.
And it’s all about politics these days, but the “new” politics; those that get nothing done. I read in The New York Times this morning that “President Obama’s call for “tax fairness” and Mitt Romney’s tax returns have catapulted the debate over tax increases on the rich to the top of the political agenda. But with even some top Democrats hesitant, the prospects of a so-called Buffett tax on high-earning households remain uncertain, if not remote, for the immediate future. What is left may be only politics, at least until after the November elections.”
That is, indeed, a “sexy” issue, but more importantly, there’s still no talk of a Jobs Bill, or anything that might help the Middle Class. As the kids say today, “Oh well…” and I add to that, “We did it to ourselves.”
