How the Democrats and Republicans Have Both Failed America

Once upon a time, there was a president named Lyndon Baines Johnson. While in office, he launched something he called "the war on poverty". Here I sit 40+ years later, and guess what? For all the years the Democrats had control we have made absolutely no inroads in the war on poverty. Look around. Today, there are as many people in poverty as there were back then. Their percentage may have even grown. Grown or not, there still are poor people out there. Why is that? In spite of spending billions of dollars on food stamps, welfare, aid for families with dependent children, job training, subsidized housing, and everything else we did in the name of wiping out poverty we still have a lot of it. Why is that? I have an idea -- and that would be that the Democrats went and made it possible for people to get by on all their entitlement programs while doing nothing to make it worth their while to go get a job.
The Republicans are no better. They weren't bad in the Reagan years -- practicing fiscal restraint. From there it all went to hell in a handbasket. Since then, while in control of the White House and Congress, they went on spending sprees like sailors on shore leave. They spent money like water.
Clinton was a failure when it came to homeland security. While he was in office, he turned down the Saudi's offer to hand us Osama Bin Ladin. So if anyone wants to talk conspiracy theories or blame for 9-11 ask me -- I lay the blame for 3900 Americans losing their lives right at Bill's feet.
Jimmy Carter was another joke. When they bombed us in Lebanon, he did nothing. When they took hostages in Iran, he did nothing. For my money the only thing that he did right was hammer nails in Habitat for Humanity houses.
We have seen spending on both sides of the aisle. Democrats and Republicans alike. In 2007 there were over 2600 pork barrel projects tucked away in other bills so no one would notice. In 2008 that number jumped to over 11,000. While we had a Republican in office for both years, the Democrats had control of Congress. So both are guilty.
We have put billions of dollars into bailouts. We have had to bail out car companies, banks, insurance companies, and people who couldn't make mortgage payments. We are looking at taxes in the future that are going to break the working man's back. While we work for a living and struggle to live within our means, Washington doesn't feel compelled to do the same. Washington, who couldn't run a bake sale and make a profit, has taken to telling companies how to do business. They fired corporate leaders like the gentleman at GM (good or bad doesn't matter -- he was a private sector employee) because they thought they could get someone better. They have no corporate experience, but somehow are convinced that they could do better. What's wrong with this picture!!!!!!
We have been lied to. We were promised no new taxes, but if you smoke cigarettes you know that the federal tax on them went up April 1, 2009. We were promised several days to review pending legislation but they passed a budget recently that was over 1100 pages long and they passed it in less than 2 days -- so much for allowing the public to review it. 95% of Americans were promised no new taxes. Again, a lie.
We know that wealth redistribution has already begun. You can see it when you look at your 401K or the value of your home.
H.R. 1444 is a plan to gain control of the young minds in this country. Mandating public service is not the way to win people's hearts and minds. The right to bear arms is guaranteed by the Constitution and yet every day there is a subtle (and some not so subtle) attempt to take that right away. Again, we have had our leaders fail us.
We have strayed from the basic Constitutional laws and entered the realm of "what would the rest of the world do" -- also known as the Constitution as "a living, breathing, evolving" document. It was designed to grow and change -- through Constitutional amendments. Not through judges legislating from the bench. Not through judges trying to "interpret" it -- it needs no interpretation. It defines the rights of free speech, the right to bear arms, freedom of the press, the right to vote --- these need no interpretation. They do, however, require adherence!
Both parties have failed America. Both have lied. Both have spent. Both have worked at undermining our rights that are guaranteed under the Constitution. Our schools are failing our children -- because the NEA votes matter more than support of charter schools and school vouchers. Social Security is going broke because somewhere along the line Washington decided that it would be allright to use that money for other things. Social Security was never meant to be your only income at retirement -- it was supposed to be a supplement. Now even that supplement is disappearing.
Thanks a lot, Washington. The next time you vote yourself another pay raise you should stop to think about all the people who can't give themselves one.