Friday, July 1, 2011

Batty Bachmann and more pressing issues

My friend Jane Hill sent me a note the other night sharing the latest Matt Taibbi Rolling Stone piece. This one was a thorough hatchet job on the new GOP contender Michelle Bachmann. While I agreed with Jane that it is disturbing that someone as vacuous as Bachmann has emerged as a contender to lead the nation, my belief is that this political posturing is just more of the same.It's a game that keeps us entertained while we wait for the NFL season. Meanwhile our attention is diverted from issues and stories that are more pressing.

Three examples for this week that haven't had quite the same media play:

1) Minnesota on the verge of shutdown--- ( I guess it's official they have had a state shutdown). $5 billion budget problem.

2) The city of Annapolis, the Maryland capital needing to borrow $10 million to pay its bills. I know they will be flush in the fall with tax receipts. We've heard that before. As a result they will be paying $150-200K for these borrowed funds.

3 The state of New Jersey borrowing $2 billion+ from JP Morgan for a bridge loan at 9% interest so they can pay their bills. That's the same JP Morgan the taxpayers have bailed out through the Fed and Treasury with o% money..... brilliant.

Michelle Bachmann could be the least of our problems right now.

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