Rare News Desk
I’ve often said someone avoiding a difficult situation is “burying his head in the sand.” I recently learned, however, that ostriches —whose behavior is the origin of the common saying — don’t really bury their heads in the sand to ignore approaching danger but are likely checking on the safety of their underground nests.
Videos by Rare
My apologies to ostriches. It’s bad enough that they are awkward-looking flightless birds. They shouldn’t be wrongly portrayed as cowards as well. Since the reputation of ostriches has been mistakenly disparaged for far too long, we probably should find a new poster child for procrastination and denial. I nominate the career politician.
It was only a few weeks ago that the world’s attention was focused on Washington’s dysfunction. After going years with no real effort to pass an annual budget or address our crushing $17 trillion debt, the politicians were at a stalemate. The federal government was shut down and nearing default on its credit. Our country was in crisis!
For 16 days, politicians intermittently marched out to podiums with scowls on their faces to tell us why they were still right and the other side was still wrong. For 16 days, the media hung on every word from Reid, Pelosi, Boehner, McConnell and even Jay Carney. Pundits analyzed the various strategies as if it was the pre-game show for the Super Bowl. Drama built to a fever pitch. And then it was over.
So, what happened? Did our brave elected officials finally solve the self-inflicted crisis? Of course not. The career politicians in Washington did what they do best. They buried their heads in the sand or, in this case, a continuing resolution.
On October 16, Congress passed and President Obama signed the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2014. The resolution funded the government through next January 15 at the same level as planned. It gave the furloughed federal workers back pay. Also, it suspended the debt ceiling until February 7, allowing deficit spending to continue.
Essentially, nothing changed. After all the political drama, our politicians simply chose to avoid reality for a few more months. This kind of nonsense has to stop.
If you look past all of the political posturing and gamesmanship we witnessed during those two weeks in October, our nation still faces a very real fiscal crisis. Years of reckless overspending, bad economic policies and government overreach have pushed our country to the brink. I don’t think we can expect the same people that created the problem to fix it.
After signing the deal that merely postponed substantive action, President Obama had the audacity to say Congress should also work on comprehensive immigration reform. Congress already wasted time on that issue earlier this year, with no conclusion, instead of focusing on passing a responsible annual budget or proposing a significant debt reduction plan. Politicians will do anything to distract from the real problems.
The message of my campaign for U.S. Senate is simple. If we want different results from Washington, we have to send a different type of person to Washington. Right now only about 10 of our 100 senators have any measure of business experience. Meanwhile, 36 senators have been in elected office for over 30 years. No wonder our nation’s finances are a mess and the economy is stalled.
With 40 years in private enterprise, including successful tenures leading the Reebok brand and Dollar General, I am uniquely qualified to help solve the two most pressing issues of our day, the massive debt and a struggling economy. Let’s get rid of the politicians that bury their heads in the sand by sending them the way of the Dodo bird. Then we can get to work on growing our economy and paying down our debt.
David Perdue served as chairman and chief executive officer of Dollar General as well as president and chief executive officer of the Reebok brand. A Georgia native, Perdue is a Republican running for U.S. Senate.
