PROGRESS

Just when it all starts getting to be too much and it seems like we're fighting a losing battle, a poll like this comes out.

The message is getting out there, even though sometimes it seems like it isn't.  The press is doing all they can to paint the Tea Parties as fringe and idiotic, but it just isn't working. 

As for our 'betters' in Congress, not only would  45% of Americans prefer random people chosen from the phone book to replace their them, but their desperate ploy to make anyone who disagrees with them and their agenda seem stupid, out of touch and ignorant of the issues isn't getting any traction, if this latest  poll  is anything to go by.

Most of the polls these days show that a majority of Americans are against the agenda that is currently being foisted upon them, so it really is mind boggling how they expect to win reelection with their current tactics.  One can only assume that they have convinced themselves that Americans really are so stupid and in possession of such poor short term memories that their insulting, degrading tactics won't come back to haunt them in November.

This most recent poll must really be insulting to our esteemed members of Congress.  After all, if the Tea Partyers are as stupid, braindead and uninformed as our representatives in Washington keep saying they are, then what does this new poll say about them?

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PROGRESS

SPENDING GUILT

The other night, our esteemed Representatives scuttled from Washington like cockroaches when the light is turned on, heading for home, vacation or Copenhagen after a few last minute votes, including for the $174 billion jobs bill.  They also passed a $636 billion defense bill, $128 billion of which is going to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  There is no provision for the Afghan surge Obama has ordered, mind you, and a large portion of the money in the bill is going to short term extensions for unemployment benefits, health care subsidies for the jobless, doctor payments, the federal highway and transit system and the Patriot act.  But all $636 billion will be calculated as war debt, naturally.  If the wars aren't expensive enough to make people lose heart, they will make them so, it seems. 

Remember just a few years ago when they were squabbling over any bills costing more than $100 billion?  Now they are passing $1.1 trillion bills without a second thought (and barely a peep from the media) - and hurling insults at anyone who has the temerity to question the speed and size of the legislation.

The jobs bill, as usual, does very little for actually creating jobs.  There's plenty of unemployment relief and additional funding for teachers and firefighters, as well as 'new initiatives' for infrastructure issues like repairing roads and bridges.  Didn't the first stimulus, that is barely half spent, cover all of that?  Or was that just the bill of goods they sold us?

The bills today have officially put America over it's debt limit, so at least there's that....Oh, wait...never mind.  They just raised the debt ceiling by $280 billion.  Reminds me of the old joke 'we can't be broke - we still have checks!'

The insane spending has got to stop.  These bills are so full of earmarks - which both parties are guilty of indulging in - that it is getting harder and harder to determine what the original purpose was.  Not that it really matters anyway, since they can't be bothered to read them and we seem to only get them hours before a vote and barely have time.

With all of the tricks and sneaky closed door dealings going on, it's time we started using their own tactics against them.  One of their favorite ways to get public support for the bill is guilt - 'so you want people to die?!'   Or maybe, 'Oh, you must be one of those greedy selfish types who don't believe in fairness and social justice...'

Maybe it's time to use the power of guilt on them.  Let's remind them who the real victims are.  We need to start bringing our children to the Capitol.  Perhaps seeing those little faces in the gallery will remind them whose money they are spending. 

They seem to have forgotten.

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SPENDING GUILT