Broken Record

Can you believe another week has passed and Congress and the President still cannot reach a consensus on the March 1 deadline to stop major spending cuts? Washington is broken, and the blame game continues.  I am frankly sick of it. What about you?  Are you worried that if Congress does not act that the major, mandatory budget cuts facing our nation will hit the middle class and send the country spiraling back into recession?  I am.  

What can we do though?  We don’t have a vote in Congress. I live in South Carolina, and some of my Congressmen seem to be part of the problem.  The only spokesperson for reason is Sen. Lindsey Graham.  He is calling for the Congress to dock their own pay if they cannot come up with reasonable cuts that do not hurt American’s middle class. He does not go far enough though, and he joins the blame game just as his fellow Republicans are doing.  Republicans blame it on President Obama, saying he was the one who proposed and passed the sequestering idea.  

My stance is it doesn’t matter whose fault it is. Fix it.  Find common ground and work together.  On the one hand, I agree with Obama, we need a fair and balanced approach.  We bailed out Wall Street  and increased our deficit. Asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share of taxes is not going to impoverish them.  I agree with Graham too, however. We need to cut waste in our government and military.  

First, I think Republicans should stop demonizing the federal government. Our federal government should not be viewed as the enemy.  Everyday people make up the government, and they work toward helping Americans everywhere.  

Secondly, we need to ask our national department heads to prioritize their budgets and propose sensible cuts that have the least impact on services that help promote economic growth. How can we make cuts but continue to invest in America’s infrastructure in ways that create jobs and spur economic growth? Any programs that do not promote economic growth and job creation should be cut this year.  I know it is easier said then done, but we have to have a benchmark on which to judge the effectiveness of government spending. 

Finally, I think Republicans and Democrats should not get paid until they fix this mess. Congress and the President should be forced to work without pay and put in a room together until they reach consensus on fixing this mess.

What areas do you think should be cut?  Where should our Congress and the President start?  Every American should be calling their senators and representatives and demanding that they work with President Obama to fix this mess.  We need true bipartisan solutions to this issue!