Letter to the editor: The cost of politics

Politics — America’s new blood sport. Unlike traditional sports, you don’t need to be big, strong or fast. You don’t even need to be smart. Maybe that is the reason why so many unqualified people enter politics.

Like it or not, politics is big business. It is a multitrillion (not billion) dollar business.

The cost of keeping a congressman in Washington is over $275,000 a year. This does not include indirect costs such as campaign funds; publications congress members give to constituents free of charge; the costs of military aircraft that are often available for congressional trips here and abroad; or the large amounts of counterpart currency they spend when they travel overseas.

When we multiply the cost of keeping one person in Congress, times the number of people in Congress, the figure is staggering. Make no mistake: National, state and local politics is big business.

What does all of this money give the American people? It gives us a chance to see politicians (men and women) acting as children in a playground. The difference between politics and the playground is that children have not been socialized to accept the herd mentality and reject anyone who disagrees with their party’s ideology.

The question can be asked: Who oversees the political process, and is that oversight effective? Children will be children; when will adults be adults?

Richard Arnold

Murrysville