On Sunday, ABC News aired an interview with House Speaker John Boehner. In theory, this interview was supposed to help clarify the government proceedings in the wake of the shutdown – maybe even ease some of the concerns many Americans were feeling.
In reality, what transpired was 15 minutes of useless political maneuvering and cowardice. Boehner, who has the power to end the shutdown, failed to give a single straight answer. Each time interviewer George Stephanopoulos tried to force Boehner to say yes or no, the speaker would take him in verbal circles.
For example, when Stephanopoulos asked if Boehner would schedule a vote for a clean government funding resolution, a measure that would effectively end the shutdown, Boehner responded with:
“George, the house has passed four bills to keep the government open and to provide fairness to the American people under Obamacare.”
He went on to blame the Senate for the crisis and express disdain for Obamacare. The complete and comically blatant avoidance of the question became a theme for the interview. Over and over again, Boehner would invite the president to “sit down and have a conversation.” Despite a valiant effort on the part of Stephanopoulos to get answers, each question would ultimately come back to this.
Finally in the last minute of the interview, struggling to keep his composure, Stephanopoulos made one final attempt to get a straight answer.
Referencing a clean bill, he asked “Yes or no, would you put that bill on the floor?”
“I do not want the United States to default on its debt. But I am not going to raise the debt limit without a serious conversation about dealing with problems that are driving the debt up,” Boehner said.
At the end of the interview, a clearly exhausted Stephanopoulos said, “you know, I have to say, I’m not hearing much new here this morning. I don’t think the country’s hearing much new here this morning from either the president or from you and House Republicans. How is this going to end?”
Stephanopoulos, in essence, expressed the extreme frustration that the majority of Americans are feeling with their government right now. As the country moves closer to a default on its debt, our leaders are incapable of working together to reach a solution and are instead hanging the people out to dry. This is a time where the only answers that matter are “yes and no.”
But the government is as out of touch with this philosophy as they always have been. They see it more fit to maneuver and posture themselves for personal gain. It’s all about the next election.
If a presidential candidate is incapable of answering a yes or no question on whether or not he believes Puerto Rico should become the 51st state, as both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich proved just last year, then we, as a country, really need to reevaluate our standards.
These egotistical nobodies are so caught up in catering to every conceivable demographic and pleasing their peers, that at the end of the day they stand for nothing. They are holding the nation back.
And it’s not just in the answers. With the average age in the senate at 60 and the average age in the house at 55, our leaders are clearly behind the times. They continue to bicker and argue over issues that are not reflective of today’s mindset. Sex is not the taboo subject it used to be, religion has taken a backseat and, above all, today’s generation is much more informed through social media and the internet.
We’re days away from default and apparently no closer to a solution. Our true needs and interests are not being addressed and our leaders are old and unrelatable.
It’s time to cut the deadweight. It’s time to stop dragging around these dry, out of touch baby-boomers and put them out to pasture in a nice 50+ complex in Florida.
It’s time to get down to business.
