Jane Chastain : Politically Direct

Our country is in big trouble.   In June, the federal deficit, the amount of our annual overspending, topped the $1 trillion mark for the second straight year.  We are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and, at the urging of the Obama Administration, Congress continues to spend, spend, spend.

When Obama took over, the national debt was $10.6 trillion.  Now it’s over $13 trillion.  By the end of next year it will be closer to $16 trillion.

We have reached the danger zone, and while most American’s are concerned, they cannot begin to understand the depth of the hole we have dug for ourselves.
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He won the Republican nomination for President.  He hasn’t had a primary challenger for his Senate seat in two decades.  He’s 10 to 12 points ahead in most polls.  He’s a fat-cat senator sitting on a pile of dough (his own and that of those who benefit from his votes).   So, why is John McCain running scarred?

The defeats of five-term Senator Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania, three-term Senator Robert Bennett in Utah, and fourteen-term Rep. Alan Mollohan in their party’s primaries.
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Congress has been so busy trying to ram a bill masquerading as health care reform down our throats that it hasn’t had time to take care of its primary responsibility, the federal budget.

The new fiscal year began on October first and, to date, the nation’s lawmakers have passed only one of the 12 appropriations bills that make up the federal budget.  Read the rest of this entry »

Last Saturday, upwards of 200,000 people left the comfort of their homes to come to Washington, to make a statement to their elected representatives:

“We want you to shrink the size of our bloated government.  We don’t want it increased, not for health care, the environment, education, art, farmers, saving the children, world peace or a thousand and one other excuses that politicians have used over the last century to increase the size of the federal government to the point that it has crippled the free market and the ability of taxpayers to provide for themselves.

“In other words, we want you to do less, not more!” Read the rest of this entry »

On Tuesday, President Obama encouraged school children to “wash their hands.”   Now he should tell Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to follow his example and do the same.

The president took advantage of the long Labor Day weekend to wash his hands of his most embarrassing political appointment, Green Czar Van Jones.  Jones supposedly made the decision to resign on his own, but he was forced to walk the plank.   Technically, he didn’t have to jump.  He could have stayed on his perch and be run through with a sword – the sword or swim with the sharks.  Jones chose to swim.

Now it’s Pelosi’s turn to feed one of her own to the sharks, New York Congressman Charlie Rangel.  If she doesn’t, her promise to “drain the swamp” will be turned into a campaign ad that can and should be used to drain Congress of every Democrat in leadership.  Read the rest of this entry »