The electorate "spoke" in the 2010 elections. We want fiscal conservatism. We want a balanced budget. We want less debt.

The Republicans campaigned on those principles. The Tea Party in particular espoused those values. Something like 70 new Congressmen were elected. The Republicans took control.

So what do we have now? Has anyone suggested meaningful fiscal reforms? Has anyone proposed cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Defense, without which the budget CANNOT be balanced?

No, not a peep from any of them. The only comprehensive budget proposal cuts infrastructure and raises taxes but doesn't touch the "biggies". It looks like we've been duped once again!

"Amen"

Before the new representatives were sworn in I emailed Boehner, et al and expressed my concern that they would not live up to their promises and much to disappointment, once again disappointed. The reason is simple our system is broken and has been compromised by special interests with many representatives on the dole. People don't campaign to serve our country. Their intent is clear as a pathway to riches and power requiring only that you know how to swallow hard. For those who can't stomach the hypocrisy, greed, deception, etc resignation is inevitable. So VK's never vote for incumbent is wise counsel and in fact the only way we can achieve term limits. In many ways we should share responsiblity. While Egyptians marched into the streets demanding freedom far too many of us were too busy arguing over who was right and wrong with the Jersey Shore misfits. We are spoiled, soft and far too many of us disengaged that is not interersted in carrying the torch. We can;t afford these distractions and like the Egyptians should be utilizing our internet (akaTOTV, etc) effectively. Let's hope there are enough engaged young people to carry that torch that continues to light our way to retain our freedoms. The one thing that is obvious is that those posting on this forum love America.

I spent maybe 15 minutes sending e-mails to my Congressman, Dick Nugent, my Senators, Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson, as well as to Speaker Boehner, Eric Cantor and President Barack Obama. There were slightly different wordings depending on the recipient, but here's the message I sent all of them. I would encourage all of you to spend just a few minutes to do the same.

Dear _________

I am absolutely enraged at the absolute absence of action or meaningful thinking or proposals by either the White House or the Congress with regard to the federal budget and actions to reduce spending and begin to seek a balanced budget.

Any dummy who can do arithmetic can see that significant cuts in defense spending, Social Security and Medicare will be needed in order to accomplish fiscal reform. There will probably be a need for significant tax increases, as well.

Are we hearing any meaningful proposals from those who ran and were elected espousing responsibility and conservative fiscal values? NO!

As a country we are headed for fiscal ruin and those we elected to govern seem only interested in their own re-election, fund-raising and partisan politics.

I'm telling you up front that if meaningful fiscal reform isn't accomplished by you and your colleagues in the Senate as well as in the House of Representatives during this Congress and the next, no Congressional incumbent or holder of federal office will get my vote for re-election in 2012. It's that simple!

Solving the long term problem requires 2 main things:reining in healthcare costs and increasing taxes to pay for programs that Americans really want. Republicans refuse to admit that taxes ever need to rise and Democrats don't have the backbone to raise them.As for the American people we only want to cut spending on the other guy. The only area where Americans agree on spending cuts is in foreign aid. We want it all but do not want to pay for it.Thus we have these rather minor republican 100 billion dollar cuts with none of them even mentioning the big 3. That's just a joke.

Just wondering why nobody is discussing the President's budget ?????? Only the new Republicans...it is interesting that we have been suckered into the political game being played in Washington and play it on this forum !

VK is correct, but as always is silent on the President !!!

Raising taxes never fixes anything. Just look at NY. There are so many ways to cut spending it's almost unbelievable yet people only talk about two or three things.

I don't think Obama has any grasp on reality. He said we need to start living within our means then proposes a budget that spends 1.7 trillion more than they take in.

It's not a democrat or republican thing. They are ruling class politicians that need to be fired. Republicans are only the lesser of two evils.

Originally Posted by Bucco

Just wondering why nobody is discussing the President's budget ?????? Only the new Republicans...it is interesting that we have been suckered into the political game being played in Washington and play it on this forum !

VK is correct, but as always is silent on the President !!!

Lordy, Bucco, you've been transfixed on President Obama since before he was elected. But guess what, he was elected, and he is our President. if you don't like him, don't vote for him in 2012. He hasn't even begun to campaign for re-election in 2012. You've never stopped campaigning against him, even after he soundly won election to the office he ran for. At some point, maybe you'll realize that the election is over and a new POTUS can't be elected until 2012.

In the meantime, why don't we discuss who really is responsible for the various bad situations this country finds itself in. The President plays an important role, no doubt. But he can't do a thing without the authority and money provided by the Congress. He can't go to war, he can't create stimulus programs, he can't invent and install ObamaCare, he can't tax, he can't either create or cost the country even one job...he can't do any of that stuff without the legislation and funding created by the House and the Senate.

So when I'm critical of those who have campaigned for election based on certain principles and then fail to deliver on them. I focus my criticism on those in Washington who actually have the authority and responsibility to create laws that control fiscal issues. That's not the President.

As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure that President Obama hasn't proposed anything in his recent "budget proposal" that is inconsistent with what he campaigned on. That is significantly different--so far at least--from those that sought election because they promised fiscal reform. Now that they haven't delivered, you damn bethcha that's who I'll be critical of.

Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

Lordy, Bucco, you've been transfixed on President Obama since before he was elected. But guess what, he was elected, and he is our President. if you don't like him, don't vote for him in 2012.

In the meantime, why don't we discuss who really is responsible for the various bad situations this country finds itself in. The President plays an important role, no doubt. But he can't do a thing without the authority and money provided by the Congress. He can't go to war, he can't create stimulus programs, he can't invent and install ObamaCare, he can't tax, he can't either create or cost the country even one job...he can't do any of that stuff without the legislation and funding created by the House and the Senate.

So when I'm critical of those who have campaigned for election based on certain principles and then fail to deliver on them. I focus my criticism on those in Washington who actually have the authority and responsibility to create laws that control fiscal issues. That's not the President.

As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure that President Obama hasn't proposed anything in his recent "budget proposal" that is inconsistent with what he campaigned on. That is significantly different--so far at least--from those that sought election because they promised fiscal reform. Now that they haven't delivered, you damn bethcha that's who I'll be critical of.

Obama said in the campaign he would.... cut the deficit in half. INSTEAD he quadrupled it.
he said he would lower unemployment. It has gone out of site.
He said he would go through the budget line by line.. and cut. He didnt.
He said he would have transparent government. He has not.
He said he would balance the budget. He has the biggest deficits in history and is proposing at LEAST 7 trillion more debt over the next 10 years AND THAT assumes massive tax increases and revenue growth that are both will not happen... so the real debt in 10 years that is REPORTED not just unfunded will be over 25 trillions. God help us.
I could go on and on.. and you know it.
He is a big spending liberal who is INCREASING THE MASSIVE RIDICULOUS SPENDING of BUSH.. and both parties are destroying this country and you know it.
JJ

btw.. I predict a huge mess about 2 weeks from now. The continuing resolution must be passed by both the house and senate by March 4th to keep the government spending. A tea party senator will filibuster it.. it only takes one.. and liberals would rather shut down the government than agree to the serious cuts it will take to stop him.

Originally Posted by JimJoe

Obama said in the campaign he would.... cut the deficit in half. INSTEAD he quadrupled it.
he said he would lower unemployment. It has gone out of site.
He said he would go through the budget line by line.. and cut. He didnt.
He said he would have transparent government. He has not.
He said he would balance the budget. He has the biggest deficits in history and is proposing at LEAST 7 trillion more debt over the next 10 years AND THAT assumes massive tax increases and revenue growth that are both will not happen... so the real debt in 10 years that is REPORTED not just unfunded will be over 25 trillions. God help us.
I could go on and on.. and you know it.
He is a big spending liberal who is INCREASING THE MASSIVE RIDICULOUS SPENDING of BUSH.. and both parties are destroying this country and you know it.
JJ

Do not confuse VK with such facts ! He is right on what he says about me...I have opposed this President since before he got the nomination and still do. And guess what, he has not disappointed at all...just about everything I predicted has come true...he has lied so much now it is accepted fact. BUT he makes a good speech.

As President we deserve to see leadership from him. VK negates that and puts it all on a group of freshman congressman....he is playing the same political game that the WH is playing with them. He continues to get a pass on everything from VK..while others in the WH have been responsible, not this man.

to only blame liberal dems for the budget mess is beyond my understanding JimJoe. The facts just dont support your opinions. Blame must be shared by ALL and the solutions must be shared by ALL. Unfortunately the politics of the moment seem to prevent compromise on just about everything which leads me to believe that the whole system is bought and paid for.

Originally Posted by waynet

to only blame liberal dems for the budget mess is beyond my understanding JimJoe. The facts just dont support your opinions. Blame must be shared by ALL and the solutions must be shared by ALL. Unfortunately the politics of the moment seem to prevent compromise on just about everything which leads me to believe that the whole system is bought and paid for.

Did you even read my post before you criticized me??
OBVIOUSLY NOT. Look above.. I said :
He is a big spending liberal who is INCREASING THE MASSIVE RIDICULOUS SPENDING of BUSH.. and both parties are destroying this country and you know it.
Ridiculous spending of BUSH.
BOTH PARTIES ARE DESTROYING THIS COUNTRY.
PLEASE read what I wrote before you criticize me.
You are WRONG.

This is a perfect example of attacking a person for no reason who does not praise the president.
I am not as stupid as Sarah Palin either.
JJ

Originally Posted by waynet

to only blame liberal dems for the budget mess is beyond my understanding JimJoe. The facts just dont support your opinions. Blame must be shared by ALL and the solutions must be shared by ALL. Unfortunately the politics of the moment seem to prevent compromise on just about everything which leads me to believe that the whole system is bought and paid for.

Allow me please to say that I know of nobody who posts on here and very very few folks I talk with who do not hold Bush as part of the problem.

This thread was not intended to go there but addressed what has been perceived as a problem of those newly elected Reps on the Republican side (very specific in the criticsm)...my only mention of the President and JIMJOE also is to point out the lack of ANY responsibility being laid at his feet !

PS...I was not very clear...this thread was a criticism of the new Republicans and what has been construed by the thread starter as a very poor and in fact a "dupe" of us on budget cuts. My only comments and I believe those of JIMJOE simply pointed out the criticism clearly avoided any mention of President Obama and speaking for me, as the leader of the country had/has a responsibility to set the standard and tone which he has not once again !

So thus thread has also deteriorated into a bash Obama scene.

Cripes, can't we see what's happening? First, let's try to agree that the most serious threat facing the U.S. is the profligate spending of our government.

If we can agree on that, now what do we have?

We have a government--that includes the President, the House and the Senate--that is unwilling to address that issue with legislation that would reduce the deficit and ultimately begin to reduce the national debt.

The President has put forth a plan that would reduce the national debt by $1 trillion, but it would take ten years to accomplish--ten years!! A piddly 7% reduction in the amount of debt this country has accumulated, taking ten years to do so. Unbelievable!

What have members of Congress said? Nothing meaningful. Both parties can be blamed. One party controls the House and the other controls the Senate.

Why are our elected representatives acting so irresponsibly? Because the feelings of the electorate are uncertain? No. The plurality of the opinion polls showing that the public wants fiscal reform would be called a landslide were it an election. So why aren't our elected representatives doing something? This isn't a hard problem. It's not rocket science...it's simple arithmetic. There's no sense repeating it here, we all know the numbers.

The answer is pretty simple. All those 535 jobs in Washington are pretty sweet deals. Once elected, none of them want to lose those jobs. They know that the political advisors can come up with plans to manipulate the gullible electorate at election rime. They do it all the time. But it takes money...lots of it.

So where does all that money come from? The special interests, of course. The health insurance companies, the trail lawyers, the NRA, the defense contractors, the wealthiest among us. They all funnel lots and lots of money to those 535 and make damned well sure that they know what legislation to pass and what not to consider that would favor all of them.

So why has there been so little discussion or proposals to address all those issues that even the most simple among us know will have to be confronted sooner rather than later? Why is the Defense Department still buying stuff that even the military doesn't want or admits it doesn't need? How come nothing has been done to reduce the escalating cost of health care? It's growing even faster now than when everyone was hollering and yelling at town hall meetings last year. Many argued that health care must remain under the control of the private sector. Once the healthcare legislation was passed (Obamacare) that assured that, what happened? The health insurance companies increased their premiums by an average of about 11% and paid their executives big bonuses. How come we aren't making the obviously needed changes in Social Security? We can't afford the present system and everyone knows it. How come increased taxation of multi-millionaires and billionaires being considered when about 70% of the public believes it would be appropriate.

The reason of course has nothing to do with what we argue about here...that Obama does this or stands for that or wasn't born here. Or that the Democrats were responsible for this or that and the Republicans will change that.

The reason is simple,of course. The moneyed special interests are running this country for their own benefit. As long as they can keep us arguing about the idealology of the President or one party or the other, as long as they can keep the volume of that debate active and loud, then they can continue to operate in the back halls of the capitol paying off those 535 who can do something about the problems. Paying them to make sure that the needs of the special interests are met, not those of the country, certainly not what the public might want.

So if all of you want to continue to debate whether the President did this or didn't do that, or that you were 100% accurate in predicting how he might act if elected...go ahead an keep it up. All that you're doing is misdirecting the focus away from the issues and the people who can and should address the country's problems.

Go ahead...keep it up.