Watching the
House interrogation of Wall Street leaders demonstrated conclusively to me that
one of the greatest causes of the problems we face is that members of the House
(and the Senate) simply do not have a clue about how finance works. Ask any group of 10 of these honorable yabos
how a credit default swap works and one might know the answer, if that.
This is a broader problem. In a recent conversation with a retired
Senator, a very prominent, respected former committee chair, he said that he
guessed on a critical issue, like energy, there are only perhaps 3 or 4
legislators who actually understand our energy choice options well enough to
write sensible legislation or understand what is said in a hearing. The problem is getting worse as technology,
finance, even international affairs are getting more and more complicated, our
legislators are falling farther and farther behind in their understanding of
the fields for which they have oversight or other responsibilities.
This is not a snipe at Congress...okay, it is,
but that almost seems too easy, like joking about Bush's intellect or Simon
Cowell's man-boobs, but this is a serious problem, one of many with what is by
far the most dysfunctional branch of the United States government.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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