Dr. Hess wrote:
The problem lies in Congress (oooh, look, a pun). And everyone that looks and says "My congress critter is OK, it's everyone else's that's the problem" is perpetuating the problem. And let's not even get into Uncle Bill and exactly how he managed to have a projected balanced budget. And W let the D's run all over him on spending, and he gets left holding the bag. It was probably some type of deal for something else, like knocking Iraq over. I suspect "I'll vote for your school and medicine program, you vote for my Iraq program."
While I'm not going to knock your ideas- they are as valid as anything else... But for most of Bush II, Republicans controled both houses, or was very, very close. The D's didn't. You can diss Bill all you want, but he did stand up to the R's, shutting down the govenment at least 3 times- we lived through it, since my wife is a G employee. IMHO, that ended the argument that Reagan and Bush I had that it was the D's who expanded everything- if you didn't like it, you didn't have to sign it. And being that Reagan was popular, there's no doubt he would have won.
I'm not going to defend the Democrats WRT their spending, but give them credit for having the guts to tax you for their progrmas. Republicans are very lame in that they force us to do something without real input- if they asked us to pay for it, it's likely that it would fail. That's their real point.
Anyway, J- if you vote libritarian, it does mean something. It means that another fiscal conservative is willing to part company with a party that does not represent them.
As for me, I'm happy to pay taxes to help my fellow Americans, that's why I'm voting for Obama/Biden. Yes, there is corruption, but my observation is that it's the programs that pay for profit companies where it's the worst- defense, by far, the worst. if healthace is set up like many G programs are, like the EPA is- there's much less likelihood of corruption and waste.
But in the end, programs are as they are written.
My personal wish for the Democrats- the real leftist get out, and start a real set of parties. I'm not all that leftist, but I agree with the programs to a degree, and to a logical end that it should make us pay less in the long run for program X.
Anywan- J-man. Vote. Vote your real feelings- not just against D's. We D's lived (painfully) with Bush II for 8 years, you can live with Obama for at least 4. But can you live with a vote against your conscience?
Eric