The political pundits are still talking today - while people are at the polls voting - on how Americans want compromise. They don't get it.
We want principled action - not a give-up and give-in. The people voting for Barney Frank, Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the other Democratic incumbents don't want them to come off their position at all. They want more spending, more programs, more government largese.
The Tea Party absolutely doesn't want compromise, and the sentiment of the independents and the Silent Majority in America is that they don't either. They don't want a health care bill with a few of the most egregious provisions excised to create a "health care lite." They don't want the increase in government spending decreased from a 10% increase to just a 6% one. They don't want taxes increased for some and decreased or held the same for others.
Compromise has it's place, but not this time around. We won't tolerate it. No one really wants it except the media and the pundits. Unless the new Congress resembles the current one in terms of leadership and idelology, there have to be cuts - and huge ones - in programs, entitlements, staffing, budgets, and taxes.
If ever there was a time for boldness in Washington, this is it. The President has had his time to be bold, and Congress has meekly given him everything he wanted except final passgae of cap and trade (the House did, the Senate hasn't).
Now it's our time, and compromise is not the slogan. Reversal of bad programs is. Adherence to the Constitution is. Non-deficit spending is.
We'll soon see how America voted, and whether they returned the big spenders to Congress or decided that it was time for real change.
──
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Steve I must say this...until we can get the commercials off TV (from both sides) that absolutely lie...or cut out just a snippet of what the opponent said and use it in an unflattering way...until we stop the lies that allow garbage to get elected for the simple reason that they have more money...we will get the government we deserve.
First of all, both sides of the aisle are guilty of not having a spine. We have now had two of the worst presidents this country has likely ever had (in a row). Both moved ahead based on their arrogance and not the will of the people. Bush with his unnecessary war in Iraq and budget busting tax cut in the middle of a war (the first time we have ever had a tax cut in war time.) Mr. Obama has shoved through a health care bill without any proven way to pay for it. Health care for all is a fair and admirable concept but the issue is jobs and the economy and that is mostly all people care about. As much as I hate an impasse in Congress, it's time to clean house...for both parties.
Steve, These are not times for gridlock, and lack of compromise will produce just that. The last thing our country needs is more inflexibility. Your position appears to be that further polarization is good for America. I'm afraid that I can't agree with you today. Like it or not (and nobody ever does), compromise is the only path to progress.
Perhaps Congress has given in to the President too much. Perhaps the opposite is true, and we will never know. Do I support the actions of the current party in power? Occasionally, but not very often.
Steve, I have to disagree with you on one point - the leadership, Reid, Peolosi, Hoyer, Franks, Boxer, etc, have whole heartedly supported the President but haven't been able to bribe or browbeat enough of their colleagues to go along. I knew this would happen once one party controlled the Presidency, the House and the Senate. The only term limits the politicians want is the voters because once they are in, it is difficult to throw them out - but not impossible.
Jeffery,
Points well taken and unfortunately true. :)
Steve
Tom,
I agree with your conclusion about cleaning house but not with all of your analysis. Thanks. :)
Steve
Let's all hope that Pelosi is tossed as Speaker, and maybe she will even lose her district.
It sounds like Reid is going to be toast, and hopefully Franks as well.
Some of these crooks are deep rooted in like trees, and it will take the bull dozer of the tea party and the silent majority to push them out of office.
Go Vote everyone!
Mike,
What you call polarization, I call principled. It depends on how things shake out. Reid and Pelosi did not use compromise. They just marched all of their programs right on through. I would expect the Republicans to do the same if they are in the majority. :)
Steve
Gerard,
Thanks. I don't think there has been one major bill or vote that Reid or Pelosi put before their respective bodies that did not pass. :)
Steve
Michael,
This would be the news of the decade if it happens - well almost. :)
Steve
In the past compromise has been defined as conservatives joining in with liberals. It's time for compromise to become liberals joining the conservative agenda.
Mike,
Americans, some Americans, the evil among us want compromise.
When the issue is between good and evil any compromise means evil WINS! Those who compromise with evil are just as evil! You can't be just a little bit evil or just a little bit pregnant. The Bush dynasty failed because they both compromised!
America's original sin was a compromise!
American needs Conservatives as committed to their principles as the evil liberals.
Bill
Jon,
If that happens, it will be great. You're right, compromise has meant giving the liberals what they want and foresaking principles. :)
Steve
Bill,
That was very well said. Thank you. :)
Steve
Bill is 100 % right. The problem is compromise, we have compromised our values our morals and our ideals and in turn have gotten a dying country.
Steve
Americans do not want compromise, and more importantly they need the truth. My conservative values hope we can change the direction of this country
A couple of years ago, the President of the United States made it a point that HE won, and so the GOP needed to do what HE wanted. Now we are seeing a repudiation of those policies. So, I am all for compromise... BTW, that means that it is time for the President to compromise... or he is standing in the way of progress.
Steve - but they don't want gridlock, they want moving forward, and just blocking Obama's agenda will not cut it. And I think that you are wrong on your health care reform analysis. I beleive that most do want reform, just not a government take over.
Hugh,
Very well expressed. Thank you. :)
Steve
Tom,
That makes several of us. :)
Steve
Lane,
Compromise usually means that the weaker side gives in to the more powerful one. If the Dems want to soften their position, that's fine. Republicans should not budge an inch. :)
Steve
Mike,
What Americans want is more competition and lower costs - nothing that government can or should do to help except get out of the way and reduce the regulations. :)
Steve
Great informative. Thank you!
Great informative. Thank you!
Ben,
Thank you. :)
Steve
Tom has been drinking the Liberal Kool Aid * W will be one rated one of the BEST presidents in US history's perspective. He thought he would be the EDUCATION president and he ended up being the WARRIOR president that we NEEDED.
I'm glad that he is not letting the Dems get out of the mortgage regulation requests that he made early in his first term and that Barney/Dodd would not allow....mortgage melt-down is at the feet of the DEMOCRATS
Wallace,
Bush was the right President to commence the War on Terror. :)
Steve