Negotiating the Price

It's almost closing time at the bar.  The man at the end of the bar has had his eye on the brunette at the corner table for about an hour.  Now that the crowd has mostly left, he walks over to her table.  After a brief conversation, he asks the woman if she would like to go back to his hotel room.  "Absolutely not," she replies.  The man says, "how about if I give you $1000?"  "Well, ok."  "Will you go with me for $10?"  The shocked woman says "what do you think I am?!"  The man replies, "we've already established that.  We're just negotiating the price."

Mary Landrieu, the current senator from Louisiana, has actually made the focus of her campaign for re-election the fact that she has brought the state millions of federal dollars for projects in the state.  While the general public, and finally a few Republicans, are calling for smaller federal government, and less government spending, Landrieu and other incumbents are promising more spending for their districts.  Why would they be making such promises?  Pretty simple, the American voter has become the woman in the bar.  And our price is going higher and higher.  Instead of electing representatives that hold the same beliefs, the American voter has been electing the politician that promises to bring home the most goodies. 

The small problem with this practice is the cost.  The cost keeps going up.  The man in the bar went broke long ago.  But he is still handing over more and more cash to get us to go back to his room.  At first he was taking the money out of our purse.  Well, that worked great for awhile.  Then we noticed our purse was empty.  When we started to complain, the man said the only way we would get our share of our money would be to go to his room!  And we fell for it.  Again and again and again. 

So, how do we get out of this cycle?  First of all, consider our money gone.  We're not going to get it back.  Lesson learned.  Elect representatives that actually know the Constitution and take their oath seriously.  Let politicians know that we can't be bought for any price.  In other words, let them know what we are, or more importantly, are not.