Ok, so I may be the only person who is thinking about this at this particular moment but.... really, Rand Paul? Twelve hours? And, the trending topic on twitter afterward, which is really sad, was how much of a hero the man is... Does anyone else know what filibustering is?
According to Miriam Webster it is: 1.
a. The use of obstructionist tactics, especially prolonged speech making, for the purpose of delaying legislative action.
b. An instance of the use of this delaying tactic.
(Imagine if your doctor sat down, because you pay for his time by the hour, and began a lengthy and impressive speech that illustrated all of his/her vast education and vocabulary and lasted for 5 hours? You would be furious and would make sure everyone knew it and didn't go see that guy again. But when a politician does it (read: businessman/lawyer) then its totally ok, right?)
A delaying, stall tactic. So, Congress is scheduled to be in session just 137 days this year and they average member makes $174,000 for that amount of time.
Let's do the math.
Assuming that Congress works 12 hours a day in that time period, then it equates to roughly $106.00 per hour. We just paid Rand Paul $1272 dollars to talk (stall the legislative process) for 12 hours. How many of you make that kind of money? I don't.
And yet, these are the people that are supposed to represent us? We're not even talking benefits, free travel expenses, etc. Just what they are paid for the amount of time they work, period.
While I agree that the points he made are important and vital, did it really have to go that far? Why doesn't anyone argue against child hunger, for education reform, against homelessness, or about our environmental impact?
Because, it isn't sensationally newsworthy and because we won't get fired to argue with one another about real issues, just hypothetical ideas and rhetoric "This might happen, and if it does that would be bad."
And the world gasps, the crowd goes nuts, it trends on social media and we stand divided again because of the political process (which actually hasn't happened yet, thanks to the stall tactics that created the hype to begin with).
Honestly, this is the best recap of what the man had to say, minus the inflammatory excesses of flowery speech.
