budget battle | Verse-afire

The budget battle intensifies, with the Donks slavering to shut the government down, believing it is 1995 again, more concerned with retaining power than with keeping the country from running over the financial cliff. President Obama, concerned about developments in the Middle East and his slumping poll numbers, wanders late at night through his mind’s eye Hall of Heroes, asking Joe, Mao, what would you do?

BARRY – (Perplexed)

Tell me, Joe, what shall I do?

I trust no one, so turn to you

You handled Hitler, show trials, worse

Advice I need, and hope in verse

JOSEF – (Puffing on his meerschaum)

First things first, just have a smoke

Light up your pipe and go for broke

Hit ‘em hard and hit ‘em low

Smile and then a smoke ring blow

BARRY – (Fist pumping)

Good advice, and from a friend

Hard and low, a handsome blend

And you, my mentor, Chairman Mao

How do I solve this, tell me how

MAO – (Smiling enigmatically)

A journey starts with single step

And then there come great forward lep

Arrest opponent and in while

Then same with others, with big smile

JOSEF – (Nodding assent)

Republicans are at your throat

Prepare for them a Judas Goat

A target they will not avoid

And then the voters are annoyed

MAO – (Grinning)

Shut all thing down, then go away

Is all their fault, is what you say

The people blame it all on them

Then they go out and vote for Dem

BARRY – (Teary eyed)

Thank you guys, you’ve been much help

Till now I’m drowning in thick kelp

I know now how my job to keep

Goodnight my friends, it’s off to sleep

JOSEF – (Whispering)

A weakling boy, the thinnest reed

We’re on thin ice with him, indeed

I had such hopes, I had such dreams

But all are dashed, or so it seems

Mao – (Cheerful)

Ah no, my comrade, my true friend,

I see it now, how firm the trend

The leftward march be not denied

No, not with Barry by our side

The long march now does near its end

The sunlit downs just ‘round the bend

The Gulags, education camps

Death panel say goodbye to gramps

A thousand steps, we Chinese say

Will see the glory of new day

A day of sunshine, then come night

And then come dark, all thing look bright

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The budget battle has been joined. The Republicans have finally gotten the message that the country is in serious financial trouble, and are attempting to do something about it. The Democrats like things as they are. They are not about to give up their ideology and cut back on government spending. In war this would be called a meeting engagement, where two warring sides just happen to meet on a field neither had thought would be the killing ground. We have had meeting engagements before, and the result was decisive. In July of 1863, near the little Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg, two armies met head-on with the sound of boulders colliding, and when it was over one held the high ground and the other retreated, not to rise again. And so it is with the coming budget battle. On one side is the fight for slavery to the government, with deficits and economic destruction the immediate consequence of victory. On the other side is freedom.

The artist has captured the fury and sound

On canvas with strokes of his brush

The butternut line and the long stretch of ground

The stone wall they’d take with a rush

The names still ring loud, Pickett, Longstreet and Meade

Jeb Stuart and Reynolds and Hill

Marse Robert so calm on his gray painted steed

Convinced ‘twas a matter of will

And yes so it was, and yes so it is still

The names will ring down ever more

Will we have the false dawn of a Chancellorsville

Or will Gettysburg freedom ensure

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Verse-afire

The Writings of Walter Erickson

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Hall Of Heroes

A Meeting Engagement