ok ok ok maybe not Obama…What about me?!? I won’t be any trouble, I won’t eat very much and I promise all I will do is make you eat your vegetables.
Seriously though as long as politicians only want to get re-elected we are not going to get this mess fixed. What we need is a lairs pact. We need a slate of candidates for President, Senate and Congress to say whatever it takes to get elected. The one running In inner-city Chicago says he is going to get welfare for everybody, the one running in Nebraska say he is going to cut taxes to zero, etc. When they all get elected they need to launch their plan understanding that they are only going to be there 1 term because everybody is going to be so pissed at them that they will surely get voted out. But because they are 1 termers on purpose they will do what we need not what we want. Cut taxes where they need to be cut and put government programs in where thy need to be put in. Otherwise we are going to be going back and forth over and over because like the Tommy Lee Jones character said in the film Men in Black “A person is smart, people are dumb”. We want change but we want the status quo, we want a balanced budget but we want that bridge fixed. We give control over our government to people?
If this past year has proven anything, is that two very important things are needed to help stabilize this country… term limits and a balanced budget.
Term limits - politician were never supposed to be career policy wonks… new blood has a way of shaking things up. As long as they continue to stay in power for decades, they will also be looking out for their self-interest versus what is right, and keep entrenching their own agendas instead of safeguarding the Constitution and its application. I always find it interesting that politicians remember who they are when they fall into lame duck status and don’t have to raise money for the next election… We have term limits for governors and the President, but for some reason, don’t think it’s necessary for congress?
Balanced Budget - it defies logic that we have the largest entity in the country, the federal government, telling other entities (i.e. - States, businesses and individual taxpayers) that they need to keep their financial house in order, when they are the WORST offenders ever, now getting ready to INCREASE our national debt to $14.3 TRILLION dollars…
On the other hand, for term limits, the congressmen get such huge lifetime retirement packages, it’s a lot cheaper to keep them in office as long as possible. Cheaper to pay one retiree every 40 years than a new one every two years.