COMMENTARY: How Logically Broke Are We? Rep. Jeff Flake Stretches Too Far

(The following includes a bit more personal feelings than I typically express in a report.  Therefore, it has been labeled as "commentary".)

I had lots of plans (but little time) for the posts I was going to make upon my return to the desert in time for tonight's Home Run Derby.  But, this e-mail I just received changed those plans.

Rep. Jeff Flake (R-CD6 and Senate candidate) sends out a weekly "So Just How Broke Are We" news release.  He tries to tie OUR COUNTRY'S fiscal situation to some newsy tidbit/holiday/etc in a way that is clever and designed to get some notice.  I often enjoy them and occasionally (privately) critique them.  I have tremendous respect for the Congressman's views and his persistence in working on governmental fiscal issues.  I have never tried to gauge how many people read and/or are influenced by this weekly series.

But, the illogic in the one that just came out passed beyond "too cutesy", in my sometimes-humble opinion.  To throw in a baseball term in honor of the All-Star Game, he stretched too far and stepped away from his base.

Maybe if a few of us give the candidate for U.S. Senate some feedback on it, it will prompt him (his office?) to work on the analogies - and, to maybe not try so hard to be timely/cutesy/clever/etc.    Here it is:

An English scientist now believes that the first person to reach the age of 150 has already been born and could be followed within 20 years by that the first person to reach the age of 1,000.
          Though living to either of these ages would certainly be a feat, even more astonishing would be the age to which a person would need to live in order to pay down the U.S. debt, based on the average annual wage per U.S. citizen of $40,711 according to 2009 data. The U.S. is so broke that a person would need to reach the ripe old age of approximately 354 million to completely pay down our (current) $14.4 trillion debt.
          “Let’s not stick to same old same old when it comes to reducing our debt,” said Flake. (emphasis in original)

Flake is running to replace Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) next year.  He raised more than $1 million in the six weeks after he announced his candidacy.  It would take the average Arizonan (using Flake's average annual wage for a U.S. citizen and assuming Arizonans' average is the same) 25.37 YEARS to match Flake's campaign contributions for only that 6-WEEK period.

Thank God more than one person contributes to his campaign, and thank God we all contribute - in one way or another - to our government.  This kind of illogic does not help our national discussion on these serious issues; it harms it.  And, I sincerely doubt that that is Rep. Flake's intent.

The amount of my *tremendous respect* plummeted this morning; and, multiplied by the number of average Arizonans who also see the illogic in his press release, the amount could take uncalculated years of releases to recover it.

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