The liberals were at one time a voice of reason in this country. They stood for an intellectual progressive position based on reason and liberty. Whether you agree with their ideas or not, this is true. Unfortunately for the country and the political debate, this voice has recently lost it way. In their hatred for Bush, their desire to politically hurt him, they have become the reactionary voice in the country. Just one example of this is the impending financial crisis being brought on by Social Security and Medicare entitlements.
When presented with a solution to the impending crisis by the Bush administration, it is easily dismissed in thier haste to condemn anything from the White House as anti-(pick your voter group). Just as the idea of tax cuts was opposed by this crowd arguing the national debt, when passed, a ripple effect occurred and in 2006 we had a a budget surplus, which is how the debt gets paid.
Now the liberal Democrat controlled Congress is showing their true colors in another manner. They ran on a platform of supporting the troops, while opposing the war. Evidence to the contrary is plainly evident in the present state of the defense authorization budget bill. It will be blamed on the President's veto of the last budget submitted to him, but really it boils down to a political fight between the Congress and the President. This is hurting the troops by holding down a pay raise, 3% rather than the promised 3.5%, plus more than 20 re-enlistment bonuses, enlistment bonuses, special pays are canceled. In a move to deny the President his rightful Constitutional power to make appointments if Congress is in recess, the Senate has been meeting every 4th day for a partial day while the House is in full Christmas recess. So rather than shorten their Holiday recess and return to work on the 2nd or even the 7th like the rest of the real world. Many re-enlistments are being canceled due to these budget concerns, even though Congressional leaders tell us to continue our plans and the bonuses and benefits will be made retro-active, but no one in the military is willing to trust our leaders. In my opinon they have earned this lack of trust.
An old picture of me and the pupps
