Wow!  I wonder when people will be done wigging-out over President Trump.  I continue to hear hissy-fits about Trump as President.  Has he been acting too Presidential?  Do his real activities lack sufficient drama?  So imaginary non-events continue to be fabricated and accusations based on gossip are being reported as though they’re real.  Hysteria ensues.  And all at the expense of real work that our legislature needs to do to fix our economy.  Shame on the gossip sharing press and on Congress members that take this bait.

When Congress has bickered again and failed to fix the problems that they are causing I have sometimes wondered what new tasks they can be assigned that would bring their focus back to the people’s business.  I have imagined that a successful pig farmer can loan each Congress member their very own full-grown pig.  The farmer will collect a pig rental fee.  And the Congress member will be required to keep the pig in good health and happiness for a year on a fixed budget in order to continue their service in office.  I realize that most Congress members are wealthy and wouldn’t know how to care for a farm animal or stay within a budget.  But they should try to learn something new.  Part of America’s problem with Congress is that Congress members aren’t learning from their mistakes and making the needed policy changes to improve our nation.  Pig therapy might be just what Congress needs.

Congress members will bring their pig into the Congressional chambers so that they will be reminded that real living beings depend on the legislature to do the right thing.  Writing legislation with people in mind might be easier with a living and breathing reminder-pig at hand.  If Congress members find pigs in the legislature to be too messy, they can choose a different venue.  Meeting in a new place might give them new ideas.  Keeping pigs will remind Congress members that living beings, pigs or people need attention, food, a clean environment, and that if they are ignored too long, they will become restive.

I would like each Congress member to pay the pig tax so that they will remember that taxes can make keeping a pig unaffordable.  I would like them to pay veterinarian fees so that they will be reminded that expensive healthcare can make keeping a healthy pig hard to do.  K-Street will be converted into a farmer’s market where the Congress member will buy food for their pig instead of visiting lobbyists.  There on K-Street, they can converse about pigs and the business of pig prosperity with other Congressional pig farmers.  And each Congress member will have to clean up after their pig to be reminded that Congress members should clean up the messes that they make.  Likewise, Congress will write their own laws–no more un-elected bureaucrats or think-tanks writing legislation.  Congress members will not be allowed to hire a pig keeper.  Their pig will be their responsibility.

Right now, the United States is in trouble.  Taxes are too high but the government continues to overspend.  Almost ten years have passed since the Great Recession and the economy is practically at a standstill.  Interest rates are being kept low because of government debt and that hurts people who normally would receive interest on their savings.  Government debt is also being used as an excuse for overtaxing people more and never lowering taxes.  And Congress continues never-changing bad laws in the United States that have harmed prosperity.  Although there was some policy analysis in Congress in favor of repealing bad laws and fixing the economy when President Trump entered office, any changes have been blocked by nonsensical Trump complaints.  Change is needed because there’s a lot of trouble out there.

Americans can hardly make a move without being charged double for everything.  Getting a good job is harder and there’s less opportunity because so many middle class jobs have disappeared.  Tuition has doubled over the last ten years in some places.  Jobs aren’t secure for degree holders or for non-degree holders.  Real estate has been inflated dramatically (in some places it has doubled since 2010).  Healthcare has inflated (500% inflation of insulin over the last ten-year period).  Food has inflated (skirt steak at $13.95 per pound last year).  Forty nine million, or 49,000,000 Americans are living in poverty right now according to wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Poverty_in_the_United_States).  Financialization after bank deregulation has put the advantageous use of capital at the apex of society where wealthy corporations can engage in huge capital risk but ordinary Americans suffer the consequences.  For most people this is a no-fun economy.  And in the no-fun economy, so much that once was possible for so many is now impossible.

And the growth of the newly impossible will continue because it begins with a sick economy that has grown sick under economic interventionism machined into existence, fitted into place and welded in by Congress.  Economic interventionism has been profitable for some but disastrous for others.  Consequences reverberate and vibrate all around us, louder and louder.  Now, our ability to recover economically is declining because some professions are failing to train and educate the next generation of workers.  There is now a decline in university attendance.  That means that there will be fewer professionals and educated persons.  There’s a growing shortage in many trades that can’t now provide a living wage that can stand up to insecure employment that comes and goes, high healthcare costs, high taxes, low profits.  These are clear warning signs.

Both the Democrats and Republicans have forgotten how to legislate for outcomes that help ordinary people.  When they oppose the other party, they actually work together to block changes that are needed.  I ask Congress for activism not opportunism and obstructionism.  I ask Congress to think like a farmer and stop thinking like a lawyer or a banker.  I ask everyone for a moratorium on Trump hysteria.  I suggest that Congress get down to doing the people’s business.  If they can’t do the people’s business, perhaps they should try pig therapy.

If you want to understand how Congress intervened in the U.S. economy by enacting legislation that changed our national game plan, then read Political Catsup with Economy Fries: Liberalism, Pragmatism, Opportunism available at Amazon.com right now in electronic or text format.