Congress Back in Session -- Hold on to your Wallets

This is not a good start to the year -- debt ceiling needs raised, no budget for FY12, and the estimated amount to deficit with bills passed in the House last year in ten months was $1T.  This is your Congress at work.  Yet they wonder why their ratings are so low.

Looks like big Government Republicans are still in charge in the House like they have been since the GOP originally took the House in 1994, lost it in 2006 and took it back in 2010.  I thought we sent our Representatives to DC to cut the budget not have business as usual and cave to the Democrats over and over again.

Now we learn the  budget from the House of $1T was passed on December 16th to keep the Government open.  You mean to tell me that they couldn't find more cuts.  Bet regular citizens could find a lot of cuts they missed but then they would have to tell their districts no and there was an election year coming up.  Must admit that I missed the passage of the $1T budget bill to keep government open as I was getting ready for Christmas and a trip to Denver and then Phoenix for the Insight Bowl after Christmas.  How convenient to pass all this while people are involved in various activities during the holidays.

Congress should not even be in session after October 1st when the new fiscal year (FY) starts because there should be a budget in place to begin the new fiscal year.  Years ago the new FY began on 1 July but then in the traditional wisdom of Congress, they decided they wouldn't need continuing resolutions if they moved it to 1 October.  Congress still cannot get a budget agreed to and more continuing resolutions are passed even though the date was moved back.  That is no way to do business but it is also wrong to do business as usual when there is such a huge deficit.

Believe we need new leadership in Congress starting with both parties in the Senate.  I am not even a little impressed with the Republican leadership in the Senate and less impressed with the Democrats.  Mitch McConnell from the Republicans and Harry Reid from the Democrats are two leaders who need to give up leadership as neither one has the capability of putting the American people first.  As a whole, Senate leadership is really bad.

In the House, Pelosi and her group have no intention of doing was is best for all Americans as they prefer class warfare.  On the Republican side we have been disappointed that the House under the leadership of Boehner cannot even get the leadership to work together.  It seems that Cantor and Boehner are not on the same side a lot of times and has led to some dysfunctional moments.

Would have loved to see Mike Pence as Speaker of the House but he is running for Governor of Indiana so this will be his last year in Congress.  The people of Indiana are going to be very fortunate to have Mike Pence as their next Governor.  I am hoping that after four years as Governor, he will be our nominee for President in 2016.  He was one of my early favorites this time, but he felt the calling of Indiana.  Please feel free to donate to his campaign for Governor at http://mikepence.com/ to help make sure he is Indiana's next Governor.  He is going to be sorely missed in the House.

Cong Steve King who like Mike Pence can say more in a minute than most can say if five minutes will be there to protect conservative values and try to get more Republicans in the House on the side of cutting the budget and especially regulations.

The amount of regulations that are being added almost daily is mind boggling -- Obama added $9.5B in new regulations just in the month of July 2011.  Through the end of March 2011, the Obama Administration added close to $40 billion in new costs for regulations and rules to the economy, more than twice the Bush rate.  Was disgusted with the rate of Bush regulations and rules but never gave a thought it would double with the next President.  Couldn't find a tally on the end of the year but will post when it is available.

That gets us to the Republican primary where we have three big Government types running against two small Government types.  Romney, Santorum, and Newt by their records are for big Government while Paul and Perry both from Texas are for small Government just disagreeing on how to get there.  The Republican Party looks poised to have our nominee be a big Government type so will regulations/rules continue to cost the taxpayer no matter who wins the Presidency?  Sure looks like it from where I sit.

We see more and more conservatives referring to Romney as Obama lite.  Based on his record as Governor of Massachusetts, we would have to agree with that, but Romney is not running on his record as Governor.  He wants you to only takes what he says today as the facts no matter he was Governor from 2002 to Jan 2007.  Even in 2007, was a member of the moderate Republican Mainstreet Partnership who opposed Sam Alito .  He now is in the hip pocket of Wall Street and K Street lobbyists and we are supposed to believe everything he says when he has flipped flopped on over 30 issues?  Give me a break!

Will someone explain where all these big Government Republicans came from or have they been masquerading as conservatives which seems the logical conclusion.  For every Allen West (R-FL) or James Lankford (R-OK) we have twice as many in the House who believe in earmarks and pork and want to bring home that bacon to their district.  It is time for voters to actually look at who they are electing and vow to stop returning someone to Congress who is a big spender and start electing more small Government types.  In the months ahead those small Government types running for the Congress will be spotlighted on here as people to support.  We will also be going after the big Government types from both parties.  This is not about the left or the right but about electing men and women to Congress who will do the right thing for the American people not line their own pockets.

Hold on to your wallets because Congress is back ready to spend/waste your tax dollars on not only necessary expenditures but a lot that are unnecessary in this election year as they believe more spending for their district is more votes for them.   Time to send the big spenders to the unemployment line.