Rivrguy's point raises a thought -- I wonder if we might think about the ever creeping growth of benefits/entitlements as analogous to population growth... Which is similarly all-but-impossible to manage without much pain.

Malthusian Catastrophe anyone?

So we all agree we need to reduce spending!

But who here will vote for a Patty Murrey who says she wants to close Navel Shipyard Everett or a Dino Rossi who says we don't need a Boeing built tanker?

What we say and what we do are two very different things!

We love our pork but want to deprive others of theirs.

We are no longer a Republic of States but are now just a bunch dependent little children hoping to suck the last little bit out of Feds tittie!

The wrong side won the Civil War for the right reasons-God does have a bloody sense of humor!

Should not they redo the logo tittle to.... MSDNC?

It seems too many have forgotten what a million is. People wil say we could cut this or that and it'll only add up to xxxxx million. Well, you add up a bunch of millions and you get a billion. Add up those billions and you end up with a trillion.

We're the ones to blame for allowing this progression. We balance our books to stay out of debt without demanding our employers give us a raise every time we spend too much. It shouldn't be too hard to ask the same of our government...... it is we the people.

Just to be clear, if I was spending somebody elses money I don't think I'd be as vigilant as if it was my own.

It's the economy stupid (not you wntrn). The worst recession since the depression. Two years and counting and we are nowhere near what anyone of us would call a recovery.

This thread wouldn't even exist if not for how bad our economy is. Now we want to get rid of SS for old folks, take public employee pensions away, and anyone who is on a government pension and goes on to other work is a lousy no good double dipper. Folks, these and others are middle class programs. So why do we want to screw ourselves. Better yet, it distracts from the real problem.

We are eating ourselves up instead of focusing on the problem, THE EXTREMELY PISS POOR ECONOMY! Just look at all those damn political adds. Not a single one even addresses a pointed plan to deal with the economy, instead our politicians are trying to kill each other with flame throwers. WE DESERVE BETTER!

Time for us to demand from our elected leaders that they start LEADING! Check the party first, local agendas, attitudes, and whatever else that has contributed to the most divisive and dysfunctional goverment that this country has probably ever seen, at the door. Start working for the common good and better yet, do what the hell we are paying you to do.

10% of the nation thinks Congress is doing a good job. Think about that. What if only 10% of the people at your job thought you were doing good work. What if you only had 10% of your customer base showing up to your business? Hell, you would be out on the street. But yet we accept below standards work from our elected leaders and worse yet we only have below standards people running for office now.

Nuff said.