Opinion : Reading my mind: Trillions

You know you might be a politician when you say, "I know Trillions of dollars SOUNDS like a lot of money."

That was an excerpt from a brief conversation I had with a staff member that works for our Senator, Chuck Grassley.

I get news releases from most of the elected officials every time they need to brag about what they did. Or whenever they need to cover their behind because they something that they know the people back home won't be happy with, so they need to spin it. I have no problem firing off a reply to them. Now usually I don't, but sometimes, well, I've just had enough.

When it comes to money, I might have a knee jerk reaction because it's just about September. This is one of the four times each year that I write a check for these same politicians to turn around and decide how to blow it, I mean spend it, I mean "benefit" me with it.They get to do that for all of us, so to them, a trillion $mackeroo$ is pocket change.

Maybe I'm just getting old and crotchety. Or maybe I remember how Grassley thought building a rainforest in Iowa back in 2003 was a super-duper idea, you haven't been in the cornfield long enough. You have lost all sense of reality. But we keep sending the guy back, year after year, decade after decade. It's time for a new leader.

Anyway, the lastest incident, was in the form of an email from Grassley's office celebrating how he voted for one of the mega "infrastructure bills." He was proud about how it was going to help Iowans. I didn't respond to the first bill he signed for mega TRILLIONS of dollars, but I did the second time.

My response to the second "infrastructure bill" went like this. "Please, just resign. I am continually amazed by the guys that I THOUGHT believed like I do then turn around and sell the WHOLE COUNTRY out with their, "Aye!" If you no longer have the balls to stand up against these multi TRILLION dollar bills, we've forsaken million and billion because we've learned a new word, go home. I'm so done."

Well, that triggered a phone call from his office.

The staffer was sure that I had my bills mixed up. I should have asked if it mattered WHICH trillion dollar bill I was talking about. I MUST be talking about the FIRST bill that Grassley voted for, not the SECOND one which was smaller by oh I don't know a trillion. Quite frankly, I didn't hear much that he said. He kept saying, "Now, a trillion might sound like a lot, but really...." "Yeah," I replied, "It SOUNDS like a lot because it IS a lot!"

"Now," he repeated, "a trillions might sound like a lot but about 500 million (it might have been billion) went to..." like I do with all spam calls, I hung up.

Millions, billions, trillions, wait until they learn the word "quadrillion." Then it will be, "Now quadrillions SOUNDS like a lot of money, but really 500 TRILLION of it went to..." Basically, I learned the first lesson in political spinning. Take the preferred prefix, attach it to "-illions" and say, "Now I know -illions SOUNDS like a lot of money..." but honestly, when you live in Washington D.C. it no longer sounds like a lot of money, to THEM.

These are just words used to describe massive amounts of money that we don't have, can't pay back and have no intention of figuring out the impact of spending.

I still live in a world where millions and billions sound like a lot of money. I go to meetings for the city and county where 100's of thousands of dollars SOUNDS like a lot of money.

Granted, if you get out your calculator, and run just the salaries of our local employees into it, you'll hit numbers you'll never see in a normal checking account, and I get that. It does this lady's heart good to sit in on a council meeting where they batted around spending money on a project over and over and tried to find a cheaper way to get it taken care of.

I've also sat in on government meetings as the politicians who still have their normal minds about them, shake their heads at the government requirements to either spend or get government money. The requirements are ridiculous.

Call me an equal opportunity politician offender. But be warned. If you send me a press release telling me that you are proud of spending TRILLIONS of dollars and how it's going to help me, my memory of Ronald Reagan's warning will pop into my mind. "The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help," will be ringing in my mind's ear.

But to any politician pulling this, my response is, "Yada, yada, yada," which means, "I don't believe a word of what you're selling me." Resign, along with everyone else that's been there longer than a couple of terms. Pass a bill on term limits, and I'll believe that THIS is your greatest accomplishment.

As Joe Biden would say, "Come on man..." when you and Bernie have more in common than Joe six pack, you're in trouble. Go home. You've lost touch with those of us in the REAL world.

And for the record, don't bother calling again, I ain't buyin'. I just want to be able to vote for a person that thinks TRILLIONS of dollars IS a lot of money. And you sir, aren't it.

I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that follow up call might not have had the desired affect on this voter. As a matter of fact I thought it was odd that you bothered to return the call. Then I realized, it's election season. NOW you care what I think, not really but we'll play like you do. ANYONE can run for office. Anyone, Buehler? Buehler?