Congress and the Age of Reason

by Madeleine Kando

Last week I read an article in the Wall Street Journal called ‘Fight Against Government Flab is Personal for these Politicians’, which made me slightly nauseous. It describes how a group of mostly younger Republican Congressmen have become enamored with an exercise program called P90X . Its success is based on an approach called 'muscle confusion', meaning that it includes a hodgepodge of work-out techniques like yoga, pilates, kick-boxing etc. Republican Congressman Paul Ryan is the most ardent follower and promoter of this P90X fad. He is just as ardently leading the charge in pulling the social support net from under our feet.

While he is working on confusing his muscles with his Republican buddies Kevin MacCarthy and Jeff Flake, the rest of us can look forward to loosing our unemployment benefits, our food stamps, health care coverage and social security. All thanks to the energetic, super-healthy, super-sculpted Mr. Ryan.

Many of us don’t know if we'll be able put enough food on the table or pay our rent. It is downright infuriating to realize that the very same lawmakers that so enthusiastically work on sculpting their bodies are the ones that are most energetic about taking away our ability to stay afloat. Has it ever occurred to Mr. Ryan that obesity is the poor man's way to survive? Sculpting bodies is a rich man’s pass-time. Is it beyond his comprehension that the only type of food a poor family can afford is cheap high-calorie junk food?

Or should we follow the example of these anointed, young, vigorous Republicans. Yes, let's all head for the gym doors. Let's build those muscles while our teeth are rotting away because we cannot afford a dentist.

We are at the mercy of a group of 'Generation X' Republicans, obviously more concerned with their looks than how a civilized democracy should be run. A group that is lacking any sense of social equality.

What they are good at is not only trimming their own fat but ours as well. Ryan and his gym-buddies are prancing around in their gym shorts and have the audacity to vote to lower the top tax rate to 25%. They are bent on muscling out income tax on capital gains, kick box the corporate income tax into oblivion, rip Social Security, crunch the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance, and power walk all over traditional Medicare and most of Medicaid, all in the name of budget deficit reduction.

The article inspired me to look at some age statistics for our current Congress. Of 429 Representatives, 57 are from the 'silent generation' (people born between 1925 and 1945.)** There are 253 'boomers' (those born between 1943 and 1960) and 119 ‘Generation X’ Congressmen (those born between 1961 and 1981.)

Twice as many 'silent' generation Congressmen are Democrats, about an equal number are 'boomers', but there are three times as many Republican ‘Gen-Xers’ as Democrats. Does that mean we are seeing an age imbalance in our government?

I don't blame our ‘Gen-X’ Congressmen for wanting to stay in shape. They still have to worry about their looks. But I don’t want to know about it. It’s in bad taste. Leave the job of public exhibitionism to Jerry Springer. For the rest of us who are trying to make ends meet, who cannot afford a health club membership and who rely on cheap, high-calorie food for subsistence, it would be a lot less painful if right-wing conservative politicians would keep their private lives out of the media and their gym-shorts out of sight.

** Why they are called the 'silent' generation is a mystery to me because most rock stars of the 60s were of the Silent Generation, including the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Elvis Presley. Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, Clint Eastwood and James Dean are also members of the silent generation. leave comment here