By Mary Lou Bruner - Mineola Texas
I just heard the interview with Representative Louie Gohmert and I agree with him 100. As the details of the debt ceiling bill begin to emerge it looks as if this bill is not a very good deal" for the American people. Americans feel like we are being given only part of the story in some cases and some Congressmen/women are actually trying to mislead us. If
Speaker Boehner got 98 of what he wanted in this bill he obviously had extremely low expectations going into the negotiations.
The bill being voted on today is basically Senator Mitch McConnells Compromise Bill which he and Harry Reid put together before all of the other bills were developed and voted upon. The biggest change is the requirement of a vote on a Balance Budget Amendment. That vote would tell us which Congressmen/women are really for balancing the budget.
However in this bill Mr. Obama still gets to put off the pain and controversy from any spending cuts until after the 2012 election even though his administration is the administration which added most of the tremendous debt. Republicans who negotiated the deal let us down by not demanding that the cuts begin immediately. They must have felt sorry for Mr. Obama.
We the people have a HUGE problem with the Committee of 12. Who will appoint the committee members? What criteria will be used?
You can bet the Democrats will fill committee appointments with liberals like the radical feminist from Florida who has a hyphenated last name. The Republicans always think they have to bend over backwards and appoint people who agree with Democrats. I shutter to think who they will appoint!
A committee of 12 gets to decide where the cuts will be made instead of a Committee of 435. Why are 12 men and/or women making such important decisions? Why isnt a Committee of 425 elected Representatives and Senators making these important decisions? The press doesnt generally cover what a Committee of 12 does behind closed doors. We the people are more likely to get transparency and fairness if all of Congress makes these decisions.
We know about the Triggers" in the bill. Triggers can shoot you in the foot!!! The triggers are a way to blackmail Congress. If Congress does not automatically agree with the Committee of 12 the Trigger points the gun at Medicare and the Military.
Doesnt the Republican Party realize how bad this is? It makes the Republican Party the scape-goat. This bill paints the Republican Party as the Party that wants to cut old peoples Medicare benefits. The Republican Party needs to frame their own policy on Medicare. First Republicans should say that no cuts would be made in the Medicare program until the waste fraud and abuse is found and disposed of.
Republicans should educate the people. The senior citizens must understand that Medicare is not sustainable as it is now and it will have to be streamlined or it is doomed to collapse. Then the cuts which must be made would be to save the program. Weve heard this; but we need to hear it often so it will begin to sink in. The Republican Party should not let the Democratic Party define the Republicans as the Demons who hate health care for old people and the party that loves war.
We know there is also waste fraud and abuse in the military as in other programs but you should not allow a committee of 12 decide to cut the Military as punishment for Congress not reaching an agreement. All of the departments and agencies in the Federal government are NOT equal. The military is one of the few departments which is actually Constitutional. If Congress allows this committee to cut the military so much that America cannot defend the country our nation could be in more trouble than it is in now.
This bill does not really cut spending because it proposes to raise the debt ceiling by 7 trillion dollars over ten years. How can raising the debt ceiling by 7 trillion dollars be considered a cut? Perhaps members of Congress havent read the bill. Or Perhaps they got a bump on the head and are not thinking straight.
This bill supposedly cuts 2.5 trillion dollars in spending. The Standard and Poors (S&P) and Moody rating agencies have said that if America does not cut at least 4 trillion dollars from the budget over the next ten years the agencies will take away our Triple A Credit rating because the bill does not help solve Americas budget problems. A lowering of the US credit rating would cause interest rates to go up on home loans and car loans and probably credit cards. Any savings from this bill would be immediately wiped out.
It doesnt matter if a deal is reached by August 2. The credit rating will still be lowered because this bill does not address the economic problems in a significant way to lower the U.S. debt ceiling. Somebody lied to Americans when he told us an agreement must absolutely be reached by August 2. Our government is not at the point of a default yet. We still have a little time before we are facing a default.
Democrats have tried to create a crisis so we would be forced to accept whatever they are willing to give us without our even having time to read the bill and analyze it. We saw the same thing with Obamacare when Nancy Pelosi said We have to pass the bill to see what is in it."
What we are facing right now is the lowering of our national credit rating and that is likely to happen even if this bill is passed. We should throw this bill in the trash and write a new bill which lowers the debt ceiling by 4 trillion dollars in real cuts with a significant portion of the cuts beginning right now. Include wording in the bill which assures NO NEW TAXES. Include wording in the bill which assures that Congress will vote on a Balanced Budget Bill before the election in 2012.
We want an official record of where every elected official stands on a Balanced Budget Bill before we have the election next year. Officials who want to bring our government down by continuing to spend money we do not have will be voted out of office.
As we get more details about what is in this bill I am thinking Congress should vote NO" on the Debt Ceiling Compromise Bill which is being voted upon in both houses of government today.
A Fox News survey indicates informed people who are watching Congress closely agree with me. 94 of the people who have taken the Fox News survey say Congress should vote No" on this bill. Even people on Social Security realize their Social Security Checks are not going to be enough to buy groceries if the Democrats in Congress are allowed to have their way on spending and the national debt ceiling. We appreciate Fox News Network for interviewing people on each side of this debate and for presenting the facts about the details hidden in this bill.
