The Sucker at the Table

Dear Madame L,

I read in the New York Times the other day: "Wall Street is in on the joke."  It was the executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, R. Bruce Josten, who said, "Wall Street is in on the joke.” 

The "joke" is apparently the game Congress is playing with the U.S. debt ceiling. It looks like the Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives forced a vote on the debt ceiling so that they could use the results in campaign speeches leading up to the 2012 elections. It looks like a game of chicken, in fact.

Your thoughts?

A Reader

Dear Reader,

Madame L is not a poker player, but she thinks the following statement applies to the U.S. Congress and the American people, as well as the sucker at the poker table: If you're sitting down to a game of poker, you look around the table, and you can't spot the sucker, the sucker is YOU.

In this case, the sucker is the American people, the dealer is Congress, and the house is Wall Street, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and all those other people who are winning at the table while the rest of us get bilked of our life savings, get told we should be saving for retirement when we are living from paycheck to paycheck, lose our homes that the bank told us we could pay for, and can't find work.

Does Madame L sound bitter? If so, do you, Dear Reader, blame her? Madame L is tired of being played for the sucker. Madame L wants the elected representatives of the American people to behave like responsible adults and take care of the people who voted them into office. Is that too much to ask?

Sincerely,

Madame L