The president asked whether a nation that relies on coal miners for much of its electricity should not do everything in its power to keep those men safe.
Now, he said, we are going to repair the mine safety inspection process to make sure of that.
The question he did not address or answer was why, when regulators had cited the Massey Energy mines for repeated safety violations, no one stepped up and dealt with the problems. Now, with 29 miners dead, we have a new priority — doing the job that should have been done right all along.
Sp we give speeches and set about to fix the problem? We have mine regulations. We have food safety regulations, we have building codes and traffic safety rules and more. And still bridges fall down from neglect and mines blow up – and people die.
Politicians bob along on this tide of failure, secure in the knowledge that what they do matters. It does, but not in the way they imagine. They make speeches. Promise improvements after each disaster and move right along to the next issue. A few more tax dollars will do it, they say.
Is it any wonder that so great a proportion of Americans are simply disgusted. And there is still no evidence that anyone knows how to make this right.
But it is increasingly clear that the every increasing dead weight of our entitled government is not the solution.
