...and this is news?

So the game of 'let's make a deal' in Washington is done.  After all the sound and fury, we got a result signifying nothing (...not to mention a tale told by idiots).  Once again, the pundits have managed to punt a little farther down the road.  Despite this smiley face virtual reality, though, there's apparently a whole lot of need to deaden the pain in D.C.:

A new report says that adults in Washington D.C. abuse alcohol more than anyone else in the country.  According to a new study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 8.1 percent of adults age 26 or older in D.C. are alcohol dependent. Looking at a long-term sampling, alcohol abuse rate is on the rise for the District, according to the survey...

D.C. was also among the 10 states (sic) where residents most frequently reported smoking marijuana within the last month...  ((--nice subtle plug for D.C. statehood there...  Jemison))

District adults were among the top coke users in the United States, with 3.78 percent of residents saying they had used over a one year period.

As others have already noted online, this actually explains a great many things.  For instance, only someone smoking dope would call reductions in planned spending increases "spending cuts."  (Here's a hint: next year's spending will still be more than this year's...)  And only someone completely high as a kite would believe that such "cuts," scheduled to take effect after the next election, will actually occur.  Finally, only a paramount example of "this is your brain on drugs" would think the best way to avoid a credit downgrade would be to (drum roll please...) authorize borrowing even more money.

But maybe I'm being too harsh, singling out the denizens of the Den of Corruption ^TM (aka D.C.).  After all, there are a whole lot of Americans, on both sides of the aisle, either celebrating or condemning these phantom "cuts," while breathing a sigh of relief that the U.S. isn't going to default, that our credit rating is secure, and we can all go back to watching cable TV.

Did that substance abuse survey even LOOK at the rest of the country?   After all, the spending and debt levels are NUTS!