The D.C. Disconnect

Excellent article. Who's the elite now??
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Thriving D.C.’s bubble will burst
By Salena Zito
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Published: Saturday, May 4, 2013, 9:00 p.m.

WASHINGTON

Eighteen Starbucks shops can be found in the three-mile walk from DuPont Circle to the U.S. Capitol. Not one of them had a line less than seven people deep on a recent Wednesday afternoon.

Twenty-one construction sites filled with workers on girders and cranes towering over whole city blocks can be found on the same walk.

Commerce bursts from every angle of this city: small businesses packed with shoppers, hair salons charging more than the monthly mortgage payment on my first house for a cut-and-blow-dry, and main as well as side streets clogged with traffic.

America's capital seems bubble-wrapped in its own vibrant economic boom, while great chunks of the nation struggle with uncertainty about how to keep the engine going.

In fact, six of the 10 wealthiest American counties are Washington suburbs.
Washington once was the manifest of power. Now you can add “center of wealth” to its portfolio, crystallizing the elite institutional disconnect between it and the rest of the country.

Nearly six months have passed since the last presidential campaign promises were preached. Six months of waiting outside of the bubble for the Obama administration to fulfill passionate vows inserted into soaring speeches that pledged to create a million new manufacturing jobs in this term, to help big factories and small businesses double their exports, and to invest in advanced manufacturing.

All were promises made by the president, over and over again, in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin and Michigan. The outcome has not matched the promises, not even closely. Manufacturing has stalled in the last three months, with only pockets of growth in certain sectors. A report last week by the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index showed contraction, with manufacturing job-growth hitting its plateau before Election Day last year.
And what about all of those job promises?

A Labor Department report on Friday showed marginally improved job growth but manufacturing jobs remain sluggish.

So, while Washington basks in its roaring economy, debating such issues as gay marriage, guns and how to provide a path to citizenship for 11 million illegal aliens, the rest of the country asks, “Hi, remember us? Where are the jobs? Can we focus on the jobs?”

The lack of attention given to the economy affects Main Streeters' very existence in a way that Washington does not understand. John Smith may have a job, but what about the impact in his community when his neighbors are out of work, or struggling to piece two lower-paying jobs together to make ends meet?

Such uncertainty affects spending habits as well. Consumers are behaving as though they are living paycheck to paycheck, because they don't know what is coming down the pike. That lack of spending means that tourism, travel and entertainment suffer; small shops, restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, service stations all eventually feel the pinch. Just ask anyone who owns a business in destination points across the country, and they'll tell you business is down.
Our economic recovery since 2009 has been sluggish, with few bright spots. Yet, when Americans went into the voting booths last year (if they did), they believed President Obama's rhetoric on class warfare and that he had their best interests at heart.

That has not played out six months later. A recovery is going on in this country, but most of the beneficiaries seem to be living right inside the Beltway.

And the polls back that up: Last month's Associated Press survey showed that only one in four Americans think their own financial situation will improve in the next year, and 52 percent of us disapprove of Obama's handling of the economy.

The centralized power and wealth in our nation's capital are becoming so disconnected from the rest of this country that it is palpable to everyone except those who live in Washington.

In most people's lives, the driving issue is economic security. Washington's obsession is with social and cultural issues that drive bigger wedges between Us and Them.

It's only a matter of time before the rest of America's complaints will burst Washington's bubble.

Read more: http://triblive.com/opinion/salena/3952736-74/washington-jobs-manufacturing?printerfriendly= true#ixzz2SYvuEOgx

That is a fairy tale, written by someone who has likely never been to the Emerald City.

DC is and always will be different. No matter what the party in power, DC plays by different rules and always will. I find it part amusing and part pathetic that so many wanna-be Senators etc., claim they should be elected "because I'm an outsider!". No matter who it is, they stop being an outsider about 1 day after being seated as a new congresman. I'd take a guess the last one who proved immune might have been Daniel Boone.

The rules--and I'm not saying they are right--will always insulate DC from much of the burst. But as in many cases the numbers quoted are partial truths: the DC power attracts the money to move closer. It is not so much that the power tosses handfulls of money at those already there, as the article implies.

Why do so many posters here believe that scowering the web for an article written by someone who agrees with them is the same thing as a sane argument?

That is a fairy tale, written by someone who has likely never been to the Emerald City.

DC is and always will be different. No matter what the party in power, DC plays by different rules and always will. I find it part amusing and part pathetic that so many wanna-be Senators etc., claim they should be elected "because I'm an outsider!". No matter who it is, they stop being an outsider about 1 day after being seated as a new congresman. I'd take a guess the last one who proved immune might have been Daniel Boone.

The rules--and I'm not saying they are right--will always insulate DC from much of the burst. But as in many cases the numbers quoted are partial truths: the DC power attracts the money to move closer. It is not so much that the power tosses handfulls of money at those already there, as the article implies.

Why do so many posters here believe that scowering the web for an article written by someone who agrees with them is the same thing as a sane argument? Originally Posted by Old-T

Maybe we're just not as sage and learned as you, OT. Or, as jaded. Or, willing to simply give in to what folks like you think is inevitable. Somebody has to try and keep this country from sinking further into the abyss. You certainly don't seem to be up to the task.

At least you chose to attack rather than defend or debate.

Yappy Lap Dog ...

At least you chose to attack rather than defend or debate.

Yappy Lap Dog ... Originally Posted by Yssup Rider

And here, folks, we have the protectionist diving mouth first into the argument, yet again.

Hey RigHand, it's time to pick up the empty Thunderbird bottles from in front of your single wide in the piney woods and move on.

Threads like this remind me of some pre-teen's dream of being rich and fabulous while cursing those who already are. But, it's not too late for you. If you get started and work hard you may yet be able to get your own reality show a la "My Big Redneck Vacation," "Duck Dynasty," "American Nose Pickers" or some other brilliant display.

It is rather disturbing when people in government service enrich themselves at our expense.
Thank you for an informative and useful article that may serve to enlighten people about the government that rules over us.

Hey RigHand, it's time to pick up the empty Thunderbird bottles from in front of your single wide in the piney woods and move on.

Threads like this remind me of some pre-teen's dream of being rich and fabulous while cursing those who already are. But, it's not too late for you. If you get started and work hard you may yet be able to get your own reality show a la "My Big Redneck Vacation," "Duck Dynasty," "American Nose Pickers" or some other brilliant display. Originally Posted by Randy4Candy

Did you even read the article, CandyAss? Or at least have your wet nurse recite it out loud for you?? The gist of the article is that while O'Blunder promised economic, (read JOB), growth, the only thing growing in this country is government. The economy is a joke, job growth is non-existent, and people are still dropping out of the workforce in record numbers. All the while D.C. is booming while being led down the primrose path by the golfer/partyer/deflector-in-chief.

Of course, you wouldn't see that as the point. Since O'Blunder isn't quoted adoringly by the author, you dismissed it immediately.

And here, folks, we have the protectionist diving mouth first into the argument, yet again. Originally Posted by EXTXOILMAN

While Assup is certainly the protector of all things idiotic, my intention was to call him out as the projectionist that he is.

Did All the while D.C. is booming while being led down the primrose path by the golfer/partyer/deflector-in-chief. Hey genius, what construction company with all of the cranes is owned by the government? I'm guess that you think it is, based on your comment. How'd you like his golfing partners yesterday, asswipe? You know, the RePuke who made the hole-in-one. I'm sure that was some kind of commie conspiracy to lead one of your fellow "true believers" astray.

Of course, you wouldn't see that as the point. Since O'Blunder isn't quoted adoringly by the author, you dismissed it immediately. No, darlin' I read it and did a lot better job of understanding it than you obviously did. So did Old-T and he got to you before I did with actual information and statements of known, historical fact based both on history and human behavior. But, you're too stupid (no, not jaded or worldly, anyone can see you don't have either of those going for you, just envious and stupid) to get it. Originally Posted by EXTXOILMAN

RigHand, you missed a few empties over by the corner.

Quote:
Originally Posted by EXTXOILMAN
Did All the while D.C. is booming while being led down the primrose path by the golfer/partyer/deflector-in-chief. Hey genius, what construction company with all of the cranes is owned by the government? I'm guess that you think it is, based on your comment. How'd you like his golfing partners yesterday, asswipe? You know, the RePuke who made the hole-in-one. I'm sure that was some kind of commie conspiracy to lead one of your fellow "true believers" astray.

Of course, you wouldn't see that as the point. Since O'Blunder isn't quoted adoringly by the author, you dismissed it immediately. No, darlin' I read it and did a lot better job of understanding it than you obviously did. So did Old-T and he got to you before I did with actual information and statements of known, historical fact based both on history and human behavior. But, you're too stupid (no, not jaded or worldly, anyone can see you don't have either of those going for you, just envious and stupid) to get it.

RigHand, you missed a few empties over by the corner.
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Ok, CandyAss, you might want to take some notes here. Never said the government owned the construction companies. But the government is paying them, in D.C., as I and the article stated. Again, the point being the seat of government is expanding while almost everywhere else is not...and O'Blunder golfs.

On the golf thing, I love the fact that the Duffer-in-Chief got schooled again. What a hack!!

And don't call me darlin'...I'm not interested in being part of your latent homosexual fantasies.

Quote:
Originally Posted by EXTXOILMAN
Did All the while D.C. is booming while being led down the primrose path by the golfer/partyer/deflector-in-chief. Hey genius, what construction company with all of the cranes is owned by the government? I'm guess that you think it is, based on your comment. How'd you like his golfing partners yesterday, asswipe? You know, the RePuke who made the hole-in-one. I'm sure that was some kind of commie conspiracy to lead one of your fellow "true believers" astray.

Of course, you wouldn't see that as the point. Since O'Blunder isn't quoted adoringly by the author, you dismissed it immediately. No, darlin' I read it and did a lot better job of understanding it than you obviously did. So did Old-T and he got to you before I did with actual information and statements of known, historical fact based both on history and human behavior. But, you're too stupid (no, not jaded or worldly, anyone can see you don't have either of those going for you, just envious and stupid) to get it.

RigHand, you missed a few empties over by the corner.
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Ok, CandyAss, you might want to take some notes here. Never said the government owned the construction companies. But the government is paying them, in D.C., as I and the article stated. Again, the point being the seat of government is expanding while almost everywhere else is not...and O'Blunder golfs.

On the golf thing, I love the fact that the Duffer-in-Chief got schooled again. What a hack!!

And don't call me darlin'...I'm not interested in being part of your latent homosexual fantasies. Originally Posted by EXTXOILMAN

the real disconnect is between your ears ... you tout some OPINION blog as fact, which of course it has to be because you read it on the internet .. then you defend an opinion to the point of insanity.

I enable java .... I will swipe out the virtual machine and start a new one after I finish this session

the real disconnect is between your ears ... you tout some OPINION blog as fact, which of course it has to be because you read it on the internet .. then you defend an opinion to the point of insanity. Originally Posted by CJ7

Nope, never used the word fact, not once. However, like OT said, I do agree with what the article states. The anecdotal evidence is irrefutable, not that you won't try in order to protect O'Blunder.

I would note, CBJ, that as is typical for you, rather than contribute to the substance of the conversation...never mind. You libtards are all the same.

Nope, never used the word fact, not once. However, like OT said, I do agree with what the article states. The anecdotal evidence is irrefutable, not that you won't try in order to protect O'Blunder.

I would note, CBJ, that as is typical for you, rather than contribute to the substance of the conversation...never mind. You libtards are all the same. Originally Posted by EXTXOILMAN

oh excuse me, my bad.

the real disconnect is because youre arguing about shit you admit you agree to even though you cant say are FACTS ..

damn repukes are all the same