Should the leaders in Washington and Raleigh ever truly believe they’re put there for the explicit purpose of handling our best interests as a whole, we won’t have to be subject to the poor efforts they now exhibit.

Shame on all of them. And we’re not holding our breath waiting.

They struggle to work together regardless of party designation, and regardless of which party is in charge. They know people back home need assistance, yet they can’t help but let other interests get in the way of doing a good job — meaning, what is right.

Back here where real life is smacking us around, we’re scratching our heads and saying naughty words while the idiocy prevails in both capital cities.

The bumbling Beltway guys are on the way to passing a $1.9 trillion bill labeled as COVID-19 relief. The House of Representatives passed it early Saturday, right on through without any semblance of true pandemic relief.

There’s a lot of people that can use the $1,400 relief checks that is the rest of the money President Donald Trump tried to get for everybody back in December. And there are scores of small businesses that can use help through programs like the Paycheck Protection Program.

The trouble is, less than 9 percent of the $1.9 trillion is actually going toward public health. Think about it: there’s $4 trillion in COVID-19 relief already signed into law, and more than $1 trillion left to be spent.

Planned Parenthood eligible for the PPP? That’s not a small business, and certainly not the spirit of the PPP program’s intent. The $130 billion for schools to reopen? No, just 5 percent of it, and not even a requirement for schools to reopen.

The $86 billion bailing out unions? The 600 hours of paid leave — think 15 weeks, or your summer stay at White Lake from Memorial Day to Labor Day — for federal workers but nothing similar for non-government workers?

The bill is the porkiest of pork bills.

Our guy said it well. “The best additional stimulus would be for Washington and America’s governors to get out of the way and let the American people use their common sense to safely reopen our schools and businesses,” Rep. David Rouzer said.

That’s a bullseye on Gov. Roy Cooper, who has made a disaster of school reopening. Last summer, he gave hard-working families little time to decide options, and compacted school districts into no-win situations. He abruptly reversed course last month, only to cry about language in Senate Bill 37 when he vetoed school reopening in a 5 o’clock Friday news dump.

Facing almost certain litigation defeat in his unilateral quest to keep bars and other businesses closed, he pivoted from that last week, too. The hypocrite who sent his daughter to private school but wants to shutter the opportunity voucher program for the rest of the state needs to take Rouzer’s advice.

North Carolinians need help. They need their children in school and local businesses open and thriving, all with respected adherence to smartly handling the pandemic. We’re intelligent enough to do both.

Since government is poor at leading and certainly won’t follow, it’s time to get out of the way.