Comments on the Political Parties

Republicans are trying to say "divided government works better". The problem I have with the Republican approach is what if they win Congress? Will they approve President Obama's Executive Branch appointees without blackmailing him into approving their pork barrel projects? And will our government shut down like it did with President Clinton and the Republican Congress in the 1990s? And how would that effect our nation in the midst of a rocky recovery to the Great Recession? Republicans have often labeled Democrats as "tax-and-spend liberals", but the Democratic Party under President Obama has imposed "pay-as-you-go" rules in Congress, rules which were done away with by the Republican Party when they were in the majority. Under President Bush, Republicans might as well have been called "borrow-and-spend conservatives", what with the huge tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 to the wealthiest Americans and the Medicare prescription drug program, all of which were unfunded liabilities. Combined with the steep drop in tax revenues due to the Great Recession, plus the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the budget surplus President Clinton handed to Bush turned into the record deficits we see today. If John McCain were elected President, he would have seen the same record deficits in 2009 that President Obama faced. The Recovery Act, aka the stimulus, has saved millions of jobs from being lost - teachers, firefighters, and police officers are working today because of it. And construction crews across the country are breaking ground on infrastructure projects that are improving roads and bridges and building high-speed rail. I must also confess that I believe moderates have their opinions heard much more in the Democratic Party than in the Republican Party. The power of moderate Democrats has never been greater; they were decisive in crafting a health insurance reform bill in the Senate without a public insurance option that will save over 150 billion dollars over the next ten years, with projected savings over one trillion dollars in the decade thereafter. And that bill would cover ninety-five percent of Americans and lower health care costs for small businesses; I honestly don't think that such a bill could have emerged without the influence of moderates in the Democratic Party.