Budget Cutting

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Okay ... funny cartoon, but then again the subject is far from funny.

Here is the problem.

The GOP ... especially the representative that were elected with the help of the Tea Party want to slash spending to the bone. The Democrats really don't want to cut spending at all. The Democrats will make a big show out of cutting a little spending here and there ... but then want to add "investments" in their little pet projects that cater to their base.

When I watch the news, I get frustrated and angry. I'm sure that I'm not alone in this. On the one hand we have Rand Paul that wants to take a meat cleaver to foreign aid, military spending, domestic spending ... actually all spending. While I agree with him that cuts can be made in all of these areas, if he had his way, we would close ourselves to the world and become "Fortress America", existing by ourselves all happy and content ... till the other 6 billion world inhabitants invaded because we were the haves and they were the have-nots. America can not live in a vacuum. We are the only super-power in the world, and by default ... like it or not, we are the leader of the free world.

On the other hand we have Weiner, Pelosi and Reed etal that are fighting to save every ounce of spending they can. These are people that never met a tax or spending program that they didn't think was essential to the American people. If they want to be Europeans ... they should just move there. I can assure you that Europeans don't think they have it as great as they do. I watch these liberals on TV and all they talk about is how everything would be just fine as long as we tax the rich (the rich being everyone that has a decent job) and end the war. How simplistic is that? These are supposed to be the "great minds" that we elected to run our government?

The White House just keeps punting ... after all, President Obama wants to be re-elected next year and he doesn't want to anger his base (even if it is for the good of the country). Compare that to a man that the President keeps quoting (President Reagan), who I never saw as pandering to the electorate. He simply did what he saw was right for the country and was re-elected in the largest electoral landslide in history. President Reagan had the gift of being able to address the public and explain why he was doing something ... and even if you didn't agree with him, you felt that he had weighed his options and made the best choice for the country ... and you really couldn't fault him for it. That was why he was nick-named the "Great Communicator", and that was why he was a great leader. Leadership is sorely lacking from the current administration. We really need our President to lead the country, but what do we get from him? Vacations, golfing and bracket picking. Everyone remembers FDR's "A day that will live in infamy" speech on the day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour on 12/7/41. Those that have heard the archives of the speech that he gave after that one realize that he was the leader that we needed at that time. In his next speech (after Congress declared a state of war), he outlined the sacrifices that were going to have to be made by the American people while the war was going on. He told them about rationing of gas and steel for the war effort. He told them that new cars would not be available because production and resources were going to build ships, tanks and planes. Stockings would not be in short supply because we needed the silk for parachutes. Women would have to go to the factories to work, because we needed the men to fight the war. This was not a Rah Rah type of speech, but it was a speech that got the American people ready for the tough times to come.

We need the President to speak to the American people like FDR did back then. We need a leader. We already know that Obama is no Ronald Reagan ... can he at least be an FDR?

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