A Common Man's View of the U.S. Debt...

I don't usually post political opinions on here unless they are directly related to wildlife or habitat, and even then rarely... But what is now going on in Washington is decades overdue and still going nowhere. The House passed a bill last week that would satisfy the criteria required to put the U.S. debt on a track to responsibility when it passed the Cut, Cap, and Balance bill. Harry Reid promptly tabled the bill w/o a vote when it got to the Senate...

Then he proclaims that the Republicans in Congress need to compromise, and that his bill is the only compromise in play?? How is that a compromise when it hasn't even come to a vote in the Senate? And who is he to claim no compromise when he tabled, w/o so much as a vote, the only effectively viable bill to, so far, address the problem?? But that's the way our government works... or doesn't work?? 

Give us a break! So many people in Washington don't think the American people know what's best for our country. Or even that we are paying attention... Well, we are paying attention, and we don't like what's been going on for a long time now.

When we, as individuals, run up too much debt, we have to make sacrifices to pay it off. But our government just keeps borrowing and wasting and taxing and spending until now the U.S. is $14.5 T in debt... And they want to borrow more to pay what is outstanding, and tell us that they will cut spending by more than they will borrow?? But they don't tell us that the cuts are merely cuts in expected increases in spending... and not really cuts in existing spending at all... The only compromising here is OF the American people.

I am reminded of the following true story:

"The Sierra Club and the U. S. Forest Service were presenting an alternative to the Wyoming ranchers for controlling the coyote population. It seems that after years of the ranchers using the tried and true method of shooting or trapping the predators, the Sierra Club had a "more humane" solution to this issue. What they were proposing was for the animals to be captured alive. The males would then be castrated and let loose again. This was ACTUALLY proposed by the Sierra Club and by the U. S. Forest Service.

All of the ranchers thought about this amazing idea for a couple of minutes.

Finally an old fellow wearing a big cowboy hat in the back of the conference room stood up, tipped his hat back and said, 'Son, I don't think you understand our problem here. These coyotes ain't f_____' our sheep; they're eatin' 'em!'

The meeting never really got back to order."

Well, I doubt Congress ever gets back to order either, at least anytime soon. But one thing for sure, the sheep in this story are the American people... and the coyotes are the bureaucrats. The government? Why it's the Forest Service and the Sierra Club, don't you know...