Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

Again, what are our chances for fiscal reform, for cuts in government spending?

With this Congress, again the answer seems to be nada, zilch, zero.

Did you all pick up on today's AP report that the House Armed Services Committee added back in billions of dollars in additional spending to the defense budget requested by the Secretary if Defense and the Joint Chiefs. Rather than "listen to the generals", the House committee added back in billions of dollars for an unneeded east coast missle defense system, to keep outdated, unneeded and expensive fleets of Navy ships and Air Firce planes operating, stopped plans for the closure of domestic bases, and cancelled plans to increase health insurance premiums to be paid by active military. The vote of the Republican-chaired committee wasn't close, 56-5.

Immediately following the meeting, both Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Martin Demsey publicly blasted the committee. Panetta said, "if the House tries to restore their favorite programs without regard to an overall military strategy, the cuts will have to come from areas that will affect our overall military readiness. There is no free lunch here. Every dollar that the House adds back in will have to be offset by cuts that will effect national security."

Remember, folks, this is the Republican majority House, the fiscal conservatives, the Tea Party, doing this. Only five of the sixty-one committee members disagreed. No need blaming the Democratic Senate for their lack of fiscal discipline--they don't have any either. This event shines the light on the self-serving, irresponsible greed demonstrated by BOTH political parties. They're all the same, regardless of what they say.

Again I say...throw them all out and let's start over.