Bob Maistros

The following is a partial transcript of a recent 60 Minutes interview with John Q. Voter:

JOHN Q:  Now, let me say I did not vote Democrats into office to be helping out a bunch of you know, fat-cat politicians at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. Nothing has been more frustrating to me this year than having to salvage a political system at great expense to taxpayers that was

Irresponsible.

precipitated, that was caused in part by completely irresponsible actions in Washington. And I’ve spoken out repeatedly about this, at town hall protests and tea party gatherings and in the polls.

This is why A, we’ve got to have spending reforms …. That’s why we want to put in some constraints on any congressman who was directing earmarks from taxpayers. Constraints on the kinds of favors they could pay out. The only ones that are gonna be paying out these stimulus checks or voting for Obamacare are the ones who are still in safe districts or states and aren’t afraid of taxpayer backlash. 

60 MINUTES: Do you think that’s why they are pushing these bills through specifically?

JOHN Q: I think in some cases that was a motivation. Which I think tells me that the people in Washington still don’t get it. They don’t get it. They’re still puzzled, why is it that people are mad at the politicians? Well, let’s see. You guys are passing some one, two trillion dollar spending bills after America went through the worst economic year that it’s gone through in decades, and you guys caused the problem. And we’ve got 10 percent unemployment. Why do you think people might be a little frustrated?

But I think that there is a culture there that feels that you know, it’s always making good decisions, and if it’s not, then it’s somebody else’s fault. And that has to change. And the only way to change it, obviously, because so far at least, I haven’t seen a lot of shame on their part, is to make sure that we’ve got a Constitution in place that prevents them from putting us in this kind of pickle again.

60 MINUTES: Do you think that they’ve made some of these spending bills based in part on the generosity and foolhardiness of voters to help put the Democrats back into Congress and the White House?

JOHN Q: I think there is no doubt about it. Look … we were in freefall. And if we hadn’t, we would’ve seen a lot more faith in government collapse….

Now, I think part of what frustrates the American people is yeah, why don’t we just let that happen? And that’s an understandable impulse. And the problem is that unfortunately this is like the guy who has dynamite strapped around him and his finger on the button. You know, you gotta kind of talk him down because all of us could go ….

But now that the system is going totally to pieces anyway, I think it is very important for us to get a system in place that prevents us from being lassoed to folks who are making bad decisions and benefiting from it. And what’s most frustrating me right now is you’ve got these same politicians who benefited from taxpayer support who are fighting tooth and nail with their interest groups up in the White House or up on Capitol Hill fighting for so-called health care reform.

60 MINUTES: Why is it taking so long to stop them?

JOHN Q: Well everything appears to take long in Congress. We can talk about health care if you want. This is democracy in action…. You’ve got a situation where, for the first time since 1776, we are having a movement of taxpayers whose main function is to protect voters from financial shenanigans. 

Number two, we’ve got a situation which we’re finally influencing things like out-of-control spending and some of these exotic sleight-of-hand budget devices that helped to create this crisis in Washington.  So, those are all gonna be tightly subject to oversight in a way they haven’t been before. 

And number three we’re setting up a system where voters are actually looking at these big systemic, too-big-to-repeal departments, making sure that they don’t get themselves in a position where we can’t stop them from taking over the country. And when they do try to take over the country, that we can unwind their appropriations in a way that doesn’t endanger the entire country.  It’s the right thing to do. And I expect it done sometime around November 2010….

2 Responses to “Who are the real ‘fat cats’? John Q. Voter speaks”