BY THE NUMBERS IN ALBANY
AND WASHINGTON……
Where in hell did all the bean counters come from?? And where did all the statesmen, intellectuals, and public servants sensitive to human needs go????
They are certainly not present in large “numbers” in Albany and Washington these days. (Those are the numbers that concern me.)
When a politician in a high place says things like, “Forget the philosophy. Here are the numbers.” referring to how one plans the future of a great state like NY…and more importantly shunts concern for PEOPLE aside —(you remember PEOPLE…those pesky things who will need to live with the results of your numerical obsession) then you know things are pretty badly off kilter.
Society depends on an administration that plans for the lives of its citizens…the ones alive today.
When the people who hold public office shed crocodile tears about what deficit numbers will mean to our grandkids while forcing the people who will be the grandmothers and grandfathers of those kids to languish in poverty and do without medical care and possibly be homeless and hungry, and be doomed to perpetual joblessness and grow up without decent schools you have a bunch of idiots holding office.
If you have no rationale-philosophy if you will- for WHY you are crunching numbers then you might as well be a bookie…and a bad one at that.
If your only planning skill is about making the numbers line up like a Rubic’s cube ( vide Washington and Albany budget fights) while the people you are sworn to serve live with hardship and uncertainty then you aren’t fit to serve.
Of course, MR. and Ms. Politician IF the only grandchildren you are talking about and worrying about and planning for and MANIPULATING THE NUMBERS FOR are the Trump’s or Koch Bros.’ or others of that ilk’s grandkids…then it all makes a kind of horrible sense… I’d almost rather believe you don’t know what the hell you’re doing…almost.