AMERICANS IN THE HEARTLANDS ARE FED UP

I recently took a week-long trip. These are my findings:

(1) At a motor hotel in Reno the clerk, who had previously become unemployed when a local hotel-casino closed its doors due to lack of business, showed me a computer list of expected check-ins for the day. The list was about 1/3 page long. She explained that the normal list was three pages long. But, Washington is not to blame.

(2) At the airport, where you normally have to park on the top level and walk from the back to the front with luggage in hand, I had no problem finding a spot on the covered level near the elevator of my choice. Inside, the normally hustling, bustling and very busy airport was almost devoid of people. The security line had six in line. Grand total time to check in and walk to my gate was less than 15 minutes. But, Washington is not to blame.

(3) The plane from Reno to Salt Lake City, normally packed with standbys waiting, only had 30 passengers on it. But, Washington is not to blame.

(4) In Salt Lake City, I went straight to the rental car agency, there was no one standing in line at the counter. In less then 10 minutes, I was driving away to Wyoming. But, Washington is not to blame.

(5) There were plenty of trucks on I-80, but almost no cars.

The long and short of this story is that almost no one is traveling, and Washington says... "We're not to blame."

The few people I did talk to along the way were all grumbling about how Washington is handling the economy. I spoke with people from Oregon, California, Utah, Wyoming, Illinois and New Hampshire. Everyone is weary over the constant lies, denials, and blame shifting of Congress and the White House. They are even more upset, Democrat and Republican alike, at the cavalier way Congress is throwing away our hard-earned money. "They don't give a damn what we think or feel," lamented one trucker, who is a staunch union member as measured by the several union badges on his shirt. "I think it's time we ran every one of those damned bastards out. Every damned last one of them."