All Politics is local.

If you follow Sarah’s blog, you know the past two weeks have left Sarah & I with little to zero time for anything other than caring for our daughters (and work). The craziness in our house reached a new level with three sick toddlers, a toddler bed conversion, and a house reconfiguration sucking every ounce of our energy. Several posts I had intended to write did not get written. Our plan to catch up on sleep last weekend did not happen. Many things did not happen.

Of course, despite all that life threw at us the past couple of weeks, the world continued to move and news continued to happen: a devastating earthquake in Haiti, and just a few days ago, Nancy Kerrigan’s name resurfaced in the press. Then, of course, there was the election to fill the late Ted Kennedy’s seat in the US Senate - I cannot seem to hold back on commenting about that news story.

I don’t really care about Scott Brown's daughter Ayla and her availability, or the fact that Mr. Brown is married to a local news reporter. I also don’t care that the Brown family happens to live in a nearby town. What has been on my mind is all the talk about how Massachusetts and America needs a Republican in the Senate and how the White House has gotten out of hand with spending and bailouts. Interestingly enough, it seems to me that the negative comments toward our leadership have been coming from Americans with few needs, but with many wants. I didn’t watch much of Scott Brown’s victory speech, but someone commented on the number of millionaires on the stage – Schilling, Romney, Flutie, et al. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t find fault in Americans making a comfortable life for themselves, but let’s be serious – how do you compare the needs of those wealthy individuals with the average American?

The voters in Massachusetts spoke and they elected a Republican. I guess can live with that. I am just tired of people complaining about BIG government and irresponsible fiscal spending in Washington. If the banks had failed and the millionaires had lost ALL their investments and could no longer receive a lavish bonus so their child could spend a summer in Tahiti, those same individuals would complain that the government should have stepped in. Yes, the government is spending. I don’t see it as wasteful spending, however. I see the spending as necessary. I believe the elected officials currently serving on both sides are working toward a better tomorrow for all Americans and an announcement regarding the 2010 Omnibus Appropriations Act (H.R. 3288) has helped solidify my belief in the current leadership.

This is directly from eInsights, the electronic newsletter of the Spina Bifida Association:

In an extraordinarily lean budget year highlighted with a national recession and government stimulus package, the Spina Bifida Association is very pleased to announce that the National Spina Bifida Program housed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) received $6.2 million -- a 14 percent increase in funding over last year! This substantial increase, included in the Fiscal Year 2010 Omnibus Appropriations Act (H.R. 3288) recently passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama, is critically important, as it comes in a year when new data indicating that the number of Americans living with Spina Bifida may be as high as 166,000 – more than double what was previously thought.

As a father to three young daughters, one of which was born with Spina Bifida, I was very pleased to read that our leaders found funds for a much needed cause. I don’t know (or care) if the elected official who pushed this section of H.R. 3288 through is Democrat or Republican. I also don’t care if he/she has a million dollars in the bank or one hundred dollars in the bank. What I do know is that the individual in Washington who helped get the bill passed is a person who cares. Sometimes that is all that matters.