Got a letter in the mail the other day. It was from the president. Apparently. At least, it bore his signature by Xerox.
One doesn't always get one of these. I wondered, before I opened it, what it was that he was going to tell me.
Would it be some kind of campaign promotion, exhorting me to vote for Republicans in my state? That was my original thought. If so, he would be wasting his time and whatever it cost to put this screed in the mail.
But no, it wasn't. It was a promise. A promise to send me $90.
Ninety bucks isn't exactly great wealth. Neither will it go a long way in these days of artificially skyrocketing consumer prices because of an ill-begotten war fought illegally and unnecessarily. But it was a promise to pay because my health insurance rates were about to go up, based, I suppose, on what a gypping Republican Congress is intending to do after the first of the year--make health care costs jump through the roof.
So: Here's ninety bucks. Hope it helps. And it will, for probably one payment of medications or for a doctor's visit, or--and this would be laughable--for badly-needed surgery. No mention of the upcoming mid-term elections tomorrow. None necessary.
Everybody knows that he could have sent us ninety bucks during the summer, before Labor Day. Everybody knows that this is a reminder that the president, in all his power and self-proclaimed majesty, can send us a check at his whim, which is what drives all his decisions: Not policy, not history, certainly not compassion. Just what he feels like doing when he feels like doing it for his benefit: A moral zero.
By now, we know about what our president does with promises, especially to give anyone money for anything. He gets them all excited, then he stiffs them.
I do not expect a dime of this. There is no reason, either, for me to change my mind about voting for Republicans in any circumstance. Their cowardice in the face of our president's corruption--and for some, their participation in it--has been disgusting for so long that it goes practically without saying.
The Democrats haven't been exactly dynamic in crafting their responses, but--that's all we have. A major restructuring of our political system has been needed for a long, long time, but that will have to wait for another day, probably beyond my lifetime.
Meanwhile, I have a few questions:
- Is this letter really from the president? Could it be from someone acting for the president, maybe a very friendly member of Congress with a relaxed viewpoint of the franking privilege? After all, the envelope is addressed from DHS, which has been up to all kinds of runarounds lately.
- Is 90 bucks per taxpayer more, or less, than what has been spent on the ridiculous Iran war so far?
- Will it cover the cost increases for Medicare which are in the offing? (big NO here)
- How will 47 answer questions about the 90 bucks which he's promised but which are obviously not coming? Will anyone accuse him of offering a cheap bribe for their votes?
- Why isn't the presidential seal on the top of the letter, even photocopied?
- What else is he going to gyp taxpayers about? Lie to them about? Try to deceive them about?
- Will things get better, or worse, with the Democrats in control of at least one house of Congress?
- How many people will, finally, understand the depths to which this incredible shyster will go for his own aggrandizement, and stop giving him blind, token, absurd support?
If you have definitive answers, please let me know. In the meantime, our Constitutional system will, I predict, be put under additional, perhaps unprecedented strain, what with the Republican Congressional bobbleheads now forced into the background. The results will be calls for a new Constitutional Convention, which will eventually be addressed in this space.
Hang on, everybody. You thought the seas were rough before? Ha.
Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
