Friday, April 15, 2011

The Audacity of Congress...

Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said today, "Which future do you want your children to have? One, where the debt gets so large it crushes the economy and gives them a diminished future?" Ryan asked. "Or this budget ... that literally not only gets us on the way to balancing the budget but pays off our debt?"  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110415/ap_on_re_us/us_spending_showdown

Sounds sincere, huh?  BUT...If people like Mr. Ryan and the other 534 elected officials in the House and Senate REALLY want to show their sincerity for cutting back spending, then let them start in their own house!  With a yearly budget in the BILLIONS, members of Congress can and DO have a free reign for ANYTHING they desire...daycare centers, haircuts, office furnishings, cars, ungodly expense accounts from various locations, increased incomes depending on what committees or status they hold in the House or Senate...and the staff options...OMG!  They even get offices and furnishing provided with our taxpayer dollars when they leave the Congress!  Widows of millionaires getting payments!  This graft goes on and on and on...

Somewhere along the way, members of Congress have determined they DESERVE all these kudos to justify the job they are doing.  NOT SO...Everyone works hard to make a living!  After 33 years of gut-wrenching, body-destroying labor to the corporate giant, AT&T,  my husband ended up on disability payments of $2204 a month.

Our elected officials continue to legislate anything conducive to their job or give aid to their proponents while my children and grandchildren are impacted daily by years of accumulated CONGRESSIONAL GREED.

EVERYONE BUT THE RICH takes the brunt of deficit reductions and that has got to change... 

The current rhetoric coming out of Washington surrounding the Republican budget is just another underhanded attempt by the mega-rich elected officials to incite fear into the American public and play off our ignorance.  Slicing benefits to 80% of us who have little input into what Congress does without releasing the full text of their budget for public scrutiny is further proof of their shady dealings.

YOU HAVE NO CREDIBILIITY WITH US! 

Before we accept ANY CUTS from the pittance we receive in federal support, CONGRESS MUST:

A.  CLEAN HOUSE
B.  REMOVE CURRENT SPECIAL INTEREST SPENDING FROM THE BUDGET
C.  STOP EARMARKS AND SOFT EARMARKS...FOREVER!
D. CUT CONGRESSIONAL SALARIES, EXPENSE ACCOUNTS AND BENEFITS
E.  DO NOT GIVE ADDITIONAL CONGRESSIONAL PAY FOR INCREASED DUTIES
F.  DECREASE CONGRESSIONAL STAFF
G.  DETAIL AND PUBLISH THE AMOUNT OF CUTS
H.  PUBLISH THE FULL TEXT OF ANY BUDGET BEFORE IT IS APPROVED

"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters." – Daniel Webster (1782-1852) (a)

"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government – lest it come to dominate our lives and interests." – Patrick Henry (a)

"When all government, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the Center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated." – Thomas Jefferson (a)

Our Forefathers confronted an unfair government who tried controlling their lives.
Can you hear the echoes and see the similarities to Washington today?  Think about it...
Housecleaning is in order, but will they meet the challenge?

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