shall make you paranoid, and it's a good thing.

Tom you said two things I always keep in mind.

The ghastly truth--at least from a politician's perspective--is that Washington actually has very little to do with the health of the economy, except maybe negatively. The only real thing that Washington can do to improve the economy is stay as far away from it as possible. Needless to say, to politicos who are interested in power, this is not what they want us to think, and both Democrats and Republicans do their damnedest to impress on us that without their Critical Economic Policies, we are all certainly doomed.

and

Remember, in Washington power is the top priority. Some people think it's about money, but there isn't one politician in Washington that could not be getting richer someplace else.

Being about as middle of the road as they come (on average) I have watched the beltway crowd with increasingly jaundiced eye for a long time now.
I knew that inside the beltway power, not money was the currency used. Money is only important to maintain that power.
I truly believe that a large number of career politicos have no idea what we out here in the real world have to do to survive from day to day.