Weekly Comments: Is Congress smarter than a fifth grader?

COLUMBUS: Tomorrow is Labor Day, and it’s been more than 25 years since we had so many out of work. It’s a shame; we’ve got near ten percent unemployment, and at least that many more who aren’t working as much as they want to.
I read a message from Dan Burris that sure relates to Labor Day, “In the past, our country needed a well-trained work force. Now it needs a work force capable of being re-trained again and again.”  He sure has that one right. He is what’s called a Futurist, and he does a better job of looking into the future than anybody on Wall Street, or in Congress.
As a result of the recession we’ve lost $2 Trillion in retirement savings accounts. So President Obama announced over the radio Saturday that he wants workers to spend less and save more. Then on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Geithner announced that the government will continue to spend all of the $700 Billion stimulus. After all, the purpose of the stimulus is to put money into the economy, probably to offset the money that workers are holing away and taking out of the economy.
This week President Obama will address the nation (and Congress). It’s a big speech, kind of a State of the Union of private and government health insurance. The president has a monumental task because the vast majority like what they’ve got and don’t see any reason to tie the knot with a government health plan they don’t hardly know. The President may tell us it’ll be three or four years before the nuptials are consummated and by then the big galoot will look mighty handsome.
Some folks are concerned that on Tuesday President Obama is gonna speak directly to our school children and that he might hint to ‘em to, you know, join the Young Democrats. But really, I think other than telling them to stay is school and study hard, he’ll spend most of his speech explaining why we need to act now to solve the health care dilemma. He figures if a fifth grader can understand it, maybe Congress will, too.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:

 “Tomorrow is Labor Day, I  suppose set by act of Congress… How Congress knew anything about labor is beyond us, but anyhow tomorrow is Labor Day.” DT #967, Sept. 1, 1929

“Now we read in the papers every day (about) one or a dozen different problems that’s supposed to be before this country.  There’s not really but one problem before the whole country.   The only problem is at least 7,000,000 people are out of work.  That’s our only problem.  There is no other one before us at all.  It’s to see that every man that wants to (and) is able to work, is allowed to find a place to go to work…” President’s Organization on Unemployment Relief Broadcast, October 18, 1931

 “Spending when we didn’t have it put us where we are today. Saving when we have got it will get us back to where we was before we went cuckoo.” DT #1353,  Nov. 24, 1930

 “We live better and owe more than anybody in the world.” Aug. 8, 1928