“Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress.
But I repeat myself.”
–Mark Twain

Paging Senator Canute?

Almost 1000 years ago, standing on the beaches of England, King Canute commanded the tides to go back out to sea. A crowd watched as the tide ignored him; the water lapping at his feet–as he knew it would.

Canute put on the demonstration to highlight the limits of his power. Canute spoke these words to remind his advisors where he stood in the cosmic scheme of things:

“Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings. For there is none worthy of the name but God, whom heaven, earth and sea obey”.

Canute was surely too wise and humble to qualify for today’s U.S. Senate. In the senate chamber, 100 make laws for 300 million. Arrogance and a false sense of power are increasingly in fashion.

And count Barack Obama (D-IL), Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) among the most fashionable: the three senators have commanded that world poverty be gone.

The three “have introduced the Global Poverty Act (S.2433), which requires the President to develop and implement a comprehensive policy to cut extreme global poverty in half by 2015 through aid, trade, debt relief, and coordination with the international community, businesses and NGOs.”

The House joined in the buffoonery, as Representatives Adam Smith (D-WA) and Spencer Bachus (R-AL) sponsored the House version of the bill (H.R. 1302), which passed the House in September.

The tricky trio wants the U.S. to shell out the bucks. But Joe Sixpack needn’t worry: he’s won’t come up empty-handed after sending his tax dollars down another third-world rathole. Nope. He’ll get what Senators are best at producing: empty, self-important speechifying and raising taxes.

OBAMA:

“Eliminating global poverty remains one of the greatest challenges we face, with billions of people around the world forced to live on just dollars a day,” said Senator Obama. “We can – and must – make it a priority of our foreign policy to commit to eliminating extreme poverty and ensuring every child has food, shelter, and clean drinking water. As we strive to rebuild America’s standing in the world, this legislation will not only commit to reducing global poverty, but will also demonstrate our promise and support to those in the developing world. Our commitment to the global economy has to extend beyond trade agreements that are more about increasing corporate profits than about helping workers and small farmers everywhere.”

Where’s the money coming from to end global poverty? Who knows? Maybe they’ll have a raffle, some carwashes and a talent show. Senators are great at talking, proposing, dreaming–and short on action–with tax hikes and piling on regulations limiting personal freedoms being the exceptions.

HAGEL:

“Poverty, hunger, and disease will be among the most serious challenges confronting the world in the 21st century,” Senator Hagel said. “This legislation provides the President of the United States the framework and resources to help implement a comprehensive policy to reduce global poverty. It is the human condition that has always driven the great events of history. This is a responsibility of all citizens of the world.”

CANTWELL:

“America needs to do more to help the 1.1 billion men, women and children throughout the world living on less than $1 a day by helping promote sustainable economic growth and development,” said Senator Cantwell. “We need to do more to save lives in the poorest countries. The U.S. needs to implement a real plan to combat poverty on a global scale while also addressing the national security risks extreme poverty creates.”

Not to be left out of the hot air sweepstakes, Rep. Smith expelled several mouthfuls.

“Arguably no greater problem faces the world than global poverty. Nearly 2.7 billion people live on less than $2 a day and close to a billion people live on less than $1 a day. We have a moral obligation to craft an overall U.S. strategy to decrease global poverty and eliminate extreme global poverty. After introducing this measure in the House for the past several years, I was pleased to see it pass this year with overwhelming bipartisan support. This bill’s Senate introduction is a significant step toward it becoming law,” Representative Adam Smith said.

For their next trick, Obama and company will introduce the Global Cancer Act, eradicating the dread killer. Or, maybe they’ll introduce the One World, One Rule Act of 2008–requiring everyone in the world to live by the Golden Rule.

Or maybe they’ll command the tides to stay out at sea.

The Senate can’t control the US budget or housing market. In fact, it could be argued that the best thing Congress could do, would be to do nothing. Just stay out of Washington for a year or two.

If the winsome threesome has its way, the USA will be sending billions upon billions of dollars overseas. And when there’s no more money left to send, maybe Obama, Hagel and Cantwell can introduce legislation that makes it mandatory for other countries to send their money to America.

Both King Canute and Mark Twain would have known better. One more Twain quote:

“There is no distinctly native American criminal class-–except Congress.”

He was right. It would be a crime if the Global Poverty Act becomes law.

by Mondoreb
Sources/images:
* Obama.senate.gov
* about.com