As of October 17, the US has finally exited its government shutdown. 800,000 government employees had been furloughed and many more are working without pay. Low-income children lost their access to food and education. Research studies that promised cures for terminal, crippling illnesses were closed temporarily. In short, we have been failed by the politicians who we elected to represent our interests and keep the country out of these kind of messes.
You’d think these esteemed men and women would set aside their differences (which caused this problem in the first place), reach across the aisle and pass some legislation that would reverse this crisis and get this country up and running again, albeit with some concessions from both parties.
Instead, both parties engaged in a flurry of vehement finger-pointing while very little is actually being done. Everyone played the despicable blame game—the President, Senate majority leader Harry Reid, Speaker of the House John Boehner, and pretty much every other politician with a mouth and a microphone.
Not least of these elected officials is right-wing firebrand Ted Cruz, who made news with a 21-hour speech which detailed the evils of Obamacare, such as Green Eggs and Ham and White Castle hamburgers. However, this speech had absolutely no purpose. The point of this filibuster is to talk through the time period when a vote was scheduled to be taken to delay that voting session and undermine whichever reviled bill the congressperson or senator is speaking against.
However, Cruz did no such thing; he ended his speech an hour before the vote was scheduled. So why did he deliver this useless sermon, especially when he ended up voting for the bill that was being voted on? For the same reason politicians nationwide are playing this idiotic blame game—to appeal to the base of their political party and to increase their chances of a nomination in 2016.
How dare they have the audacity and the gall to put their own careers above the needs of their people who chose them to represent their interests. Politicians are called public servants for a reason, and it’s time for them to serve the people of the US.
