Jon_Rariden Meets a U.S. Congressman!
Given my first post today, any who read this are not going to believe it, but US Congressman Paul Broun just now visited my company! We are a company that manufactures construction textiles and that produces in the vicinity of $100 million in sales each year, so we are apparently not too small potatoes for a member of the US House of Representatives to visit.
He shook hands and took questions informally in the conference room, where our CEO and various other of the company's upper stratum gathered around. The guy before me introduced himself by his name and job title, but I introduced myself as, "Jon Rariden, registered voter," which made people chuckle. Not my intent, but OK.
I don't know much about him except that he is a Republican, and that, during the budget debate, he introduced a (doomed) bill to lower the debt ceiling, which I think demonstrates some testicles at least.
Inwardly nervous to speak up in this gathering, I nonetheless pretty much told him verbatim the part I earlier today wrote about my belief that, when things got bad enough, something would be done about the debt, but it wasn't done. I also went through the heart attack analogy, including the parts about the aspirin, and the open heart surgery (see former post). Much to my shock, he agreed with me completely. I could read the disgust in his face as he recounted his own chagrin at the massive mounting debt and his inability to do anything about it. For example, he complained that the Senate hasn't produced a budget in over 2 years. He said, and I paraphrase, "If all you want to do is spend money, you don't want to pass a budget, because that could get in the way of your spending."
Finally, I will end this post with even worse doom and gloom than my last one. In that post, I stated a belief that economic collapse was a possibility. Imagine my surprise when, without any mention of that topic from me, the Congressman himself spontaneously said he thought the country might be headed that way, including rioting crowds. And here's a gut punch: he thinks we may not even have five years, maybe not even five months, before it happens. I'm pleased to have my opinions supported, but now even more anxious about the future. This was not the optimistic, "tell the voters what they want to hear" politician I was expecting. Sobering.
He shook hands and took questions informally in the conference room, where our CEO and various other of the company's upper stratum gathered around. The guy before me introduced himself by his name and job title, but I introduced myself as, "Jon Rariden, registered voter," which made people chuckle. Not my intent, but OK.
I don't know much about him except that he is a Republican, and that, during the budget debate, he introduced a (doomed) bill to lower the debt ceiling, which I think demonstrates some testicles at least.
Inwardly nervous to speak up in this gathering, I nonetheless pretty much told him verbatim the part I earlier today wrote about my belief that, when things got bad enough, something would be done about the debt, but it wasn't done. I also went through the heart attack analogy, including the parts about the aspirin, and the open heart surgery (see former post). Much to my shock, he agreed with me completely. I could read the disgust in his face as he recounted his own chagrin at the massive mounting debt and his inability to do anything about it. For example, he complained that the Senate hasn't produced a budget in over 2 years. He said, and I paraphrase, "If all you want to do is spend money, you don't want to pass a budget, because that could get in the way of your spending."
Finally, I will end this post with even worse doom and gloom than my last one. In that post, I stated a belief that economic collapse was a possibility. Imagine my surprise when, without any mention of that topic from me, the Congressman himself spontaneously said he thought the country might be headed that way, including rioting crowds. And here's a gut punch: he thinks we may not even have five years, maybe not even five months, before it happens. I'm pleased to have my opinions supported, but now even more anxious about the future. This was not the optimistic, "tell the voters what they want to hear" politician I was expecting. Sobering.