I agree with Dave that both sides are pretty well broken. But I do find it to be amazing how clueless the American People are to the BS put forth by the republican party. They use the patriotism generated by 9/11 as blackmail to force us into two wars, at least one of which was entirely unrelated to 9/11 and completely unnecessary. And then they play political games with something like this.
Likewise, the wars, the Bush tax cuts, and two recessions combined to bring about the huge federal deficit we are dealing with right now. They campaign on fiscal responsibility and reducing the deficit and get back in office. So what is the first thing they do (with Obama's approval, no less)? They extend the costly tax cuts. How is that showing fiscal responsibility?
Budget 101, guys. You can't continue to spend more money every year, and take in less income every year, and pretend you are going to balance the budget. The deficit commission specifically suggested that they let the tax cuts expire AND reduce spending if they want to get the deficit under control. Did we hear anything about that recommendation during the debate on the tax cuts? In fact, have we heard anything about the deficit at all since the election? Nope. They used it as a political scare tactic, and then conveniently forgot about it. And we won't hear another word about it until they decide they want to start cutting democratic-favored entitlement programs. Then we will hear how awful the deficit is and and how it is ruining America and how we must regain some fiscal responsibility.
And you know, the democrats aren't any better. Reid and Pelosi haven't accomplished anything positive for the American People in the last two years. Obama talked about Change and all these things he was going to try to do differently, up to the point that he got elected. Then you didn't hear very much about Change. Worse, Obama has turned out to be a supreme wimp. He didn't really fight very hard to make the health care initiative what it could have and should have been. He hasn't taken a hard line on anything with the republicans since he has been in office. And he totally gave in on the tax cut issue without a fight, something that he could have used as leverage in negotiations once the new congress is installed. So where does that leave him? Relatively powerless to accomplish anything for the rest of his term. So that is four more years that nothing good gets done for the people of this country after eight years of nothing good getting done under Bush.
It really is disgusting and the worst part is that we generally don't have a choice. Every election, our choices are between bad, really bad, and a whole lot worse! We have idiots running for office; we have power-hungry narcissists running for office; and we have direct representatives of special interests running for office. When we do have someone decent running, we often don't trust them because they are a "newcomer" in the public eye. So we just continue the status quo.
uke:
