While we heard constantly last year about the horrible approval
rating of President Bush, not as much was made of the deplorable ratings of
Congress, which were below those of
Bush. American's were told they wanted a "change", but apparently
that "change" was primarily in the White House, although the
reins of Congress were handed over to the Democrats as well. And
now it appears that not much has changed; the same old politics
and spending beyond any sense of reason continues. According to
Rasmussen Reports, most American's are still fed
up with Congress, and feel they are looking out for themselves
rather than looking out for their constituency.
"... just 19% of U.S. voters believe Congress has
passed any significant legislation to improve their lives,
according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone
survey."
"Eighteen percent (18%) of voters think Congress
is doing a good or excellent job, although 47% still rate its
performance as poor. This is the highest level of approval the
Congress has enjoyed since May of last year. Just two weeks ago,
only 12% said Congress was doing a good or excellent job."
"Over two-thirds of voters (68%) think members of
Congress are more interested in helping their own careers than in
helping people. 17% believe people come first for Congress, but
15% are not sure."
"Substantial majorities of Republicans (82%) and
unaffiliateds (79%) say members of Congress are more interested
in helping themselves than helping others. Even the plurality of
Democrats (48%) believe this to be true."
And it appears the glory ride is all but over for
Obama, as his approval rating is slipping more and more as each
day passes. Rasmussen reports only a +4% approval index
rating, down from +30% on 22 January. And there is nothing on the
horizon that will improve that image as long as he continues
breaking his campaign promises, promises that many of us feared
he would actually keep anyway. But that fact doesn't paint all
that rosy of a picture, because what promises he is keeping are
among the most detrimental to the American way of life, and our
long term economy.
It has always been my belief that the root of all problems in
this country falls in the lap of a meddling Congress that continually oversteps
its bounds and violates much of the Constitution, and with so little regard for
that document as to make a rational person wonder if they've ever actually read
it. And considering the types of bills being bandied around these days in the
halls of Congress, it shouldn't
take much longer until their ratings drop even lower than before.
The back door attempts to weaken or destroy the Second Amendment
(HR 45, S 22, HR 1074, and several others being added as
amendments), remove Presidential term limits (HR 5), force
mandatory service in a Civilian Corps (HR 1388), the stripping of
both the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds, and who know
how many other spending bills, all on money borrowed from China
or Japan, is starting to worry many of us. Once American's start
to lose more of the freedoms they take for granted, there should
be an uproar like nothing seen since 1776, especially since we have a President
that is pushing for the removal of those freedoms under the auspices of "helping
our economy". So what can we do to
stop this insanity?
We need an Amendment forcing term limits on Congress, and ending
their lucrative retirement and medical benefits. We also need to support the
"State Sovereignty" legislation currently going
through a number of State legislatures, though Oklahoma and South
Dakota have already passed theirs. The Federal government loves
to mandate spending items in violation of our Constitution, and
then bait the states into accepting the money or face sanctions
of other monies; our money, our children's money, and their children's money. This practice MUST END,
and a balanced budget Amendment needs to be passed.
The only way to even get close to passing that type of
legislation is to find out who is running, what they stand
for, and hold their feet to the fire once they are elected. There
are a total of 36 Senate seats up for election in 2010, and all
435 House seats plus the District of Columbia and 4 of the
5 U.S. Territories delegates, with the exception of the Resident
Commissioner of Puerto Rico. A wholesale change of House members
would be dangerous, at best, as there are a few who really do a
good job, but so many more who do not. Several here in Texas that
I feel should get the boot are Soloman Ortiz, Ruben Hinojosa,
Sheila Jackson Lee, Henry Cuellar, Charlie A. Gonzalez, Eddie
Bernice Johnson, Al Green, Gene Green, Silvestre Reyes, and Ciro
Rodriguez. They are all lackeys who vote the party line no matter
what happens. And I'm not too sure about leaving Ron Paul in
place. Additionally, dotted across the American landscape are a few Republicans
who've been in office far too long, and have become too "centrist" to do us any
good.
Of the 36 Senate seats (There might be one more
added as Hutchison plans to run for Governor of Texas, however
that may come down to an appointment to fill the seat, so I won't
count it at this time.), 5 are retiring, 4 of whom are
Republicans (Bond of Missouri, Brownback of Kansas, Martinez of
Florida, and Voinovich of Ohio). It will be a battle to hold on
to the seat in Ohio, and possibly Missouri, as both are rated
currently as toss-ups. Delaware is most likely to stay in the
Democratic column, but with the current status of things across
the nation, anything is possible.
There are a few weak links among the remaining 15
in the Republican column, namely Specter and Grassley, though
Grassley has shown to be stronger of late. Specter, however,
needs to be unseated in the primary. The rest are reasonably
sound fiscally, and have fought against bigger government
consistently, but need to be put on notice that they can't ever
roll over for the liberals among the Democrats again.
Of the 16 remaining Democrats, several need to be
targeted hard, but chief among them is Harry Reid of NV, followed
closely by Lincoln of AR, Boxer of CA, Dodd of CT, Burris of IL,
Schumer of NY, Leahy of VT, and Feingold of WI. If we can get
back to 53-43 or 52-44 in the Senate, we have the opportunity to
turn things around and stop the wholesaling of America's assets
by running up the deficit to the projected $15 trillion by the
end of the next budget year (2011), though there is now talk
among insiders that we may actually see that before the end of
the 2010 budget term.
Of course there are a few who need to get tossed
from the house, primarily Pelosi and Obey, and it will take 50
more seats to get things back on track there, brining the total
Republican count to 227. Among those I would like to see gain a
seat are LTC Allen West, US Army (Retired), running for the 22nd
District seat in Florida against Ron Klein. West has a great way
of looking at things, and, being retired military, will
definitely support our men and women of the Armed Forces.
Yes, I'd like to see a Republican super-majority,
but the likelihood of that is somewhere between slim and none. So
I'd settle for a simple majority, but only if they will act more
responsible than they did the last time they held that position
in Congress. And that's where we come in, the "silent majority".
We can no longer afford to be silent, we must speak up, speak out, and
do all we can to restore some assemblance of sanity to Washington, while we still
can.
WAKE UP, AMERICA!!!
WE'RE BEING SOLD DOWN THE RIVER!!!
Feel free to list critical races in your area, who you are
supporting, and why!!
Let's "change" the flag back to a symbol of pride
instead one of distress!!!
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