OKAY, YOU GAVE THE ORDER. NOW, CAN WE GET BACK TO WORK?

As Obama takes another [undeserved] bow, President Bush comfortably retreats in the satisfaction of getting the job done. It was George W. Bush who laid out the steps that needed to be done to get the number one most wanted man, as his country, and the world, unleashed vile and contempuous accusations at him.

While most people are throwing accolades at Obama for a "gutsy move", I am one of the few who believe the man had no choice. Everything this man does is for the betterment of Barack Obama, and knowing that if he did not give the okay to take Osama out, it would blow up right around election time.

Now, can we get back to work, please? You know, the subject that plunged your poll numbers? The issue that Obama would rather avoid until after Nov-2012, so that he doesn't have to show his hand until then. The one that he showed the first two years of his presidency.

Obama has no intention of cutting back on his spending. He was given a gift that November day back in 2008 -- complete control of the Senate, the House, and the presidency, and he ran with it. In two years he has turned a country from a majority of makers to a majority of takers.

51 percent of households do not pay income tax. In addition, the top 20 percent of tax payers pay 67 percent of taxes. Upper-income taxpayers have paid a growing share of the federal tax burden over the last 25 years, so this talking point of the libs about "tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires" is pure bunk.

This current administration was loudly shellacked in Nov-2010, but since the GOP's lackluster performance from the lameduck session to today, it is apparent the American people need to play a more stronger role than ever before. We elected people who would take a stand against out-of-control spending and robbing our grandchildren with uncontrolled debt, but they are showing signs of the all too familiar GOP weakness.

We have some true leaders on our side, such as Jim DeMint and Mike Lee, but they are sadly in the minority. The American people have lost patience with the feeble attempts to cut government spending. We want real fiscal responsibility, so let's keep the pressure on. We are that shining city on the hill.

A contact list of our representatives from Grassfire is here.

Senator Jim DeMint, the first man to set the bar in opposition to Obama, writes an excellent piece about our precarious economic situation, and our weak-kneed government employees.

The Greenville News

Don't Surrender to the Debt
by Jim DeMint - May 1, 2011

There are only two choices when it comes to our nation's debt crisis. Fight the debt, or surrender to it.

Some are already giving up.

Since President Barack Obama was inaugurated, $3.6 trillion has been added to the debt and if the country continues on the path he has laid, the debt will nearly double in the next 10 years to $26 trillion. Yet many Democrats are insisting that it’s more important to increase the debt limit than it is to seek spending reforms to prevent our nation from going into bankruptcy.

Borrowing more money without any plan to cut spending is like trying to put out a fire with gasoline. It won't improve the nation’s financial standing; it will only endanger it.

Debt increase advocates are misleading the public when they say fiscal catastrophe will result from a failure to increase the debt ceiling. They are using scare tactics to keep up their big-borrowing and spending sprees, just like they did to justify their Wall Street and mortgage bailouts. The Chicken Little claims that a debt ceiling lapse would mean the nation's creditors will not be paid are simply not true.

Next year, tax revenues are projected to cover 70 percent of federal expenditures. Only 7 percent of all projected federal government expenditures will be used to pay interest on the debt. While Washington would need to engage in significant cost-cutting measures, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service has confirmed that default would happen only if Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner chooses to let it. He has the authority to prioritize payments to ensure that default does not occur by using the available money to pay the nation's creditors and cover essential services like Social Security payments without interruption.

The true threat to our economic future comes from continual increases to the debt limit with no credible plans to ever pay it off.

Trouble is already on the horizon.

Standard & Poor's recently downgraded their outlook of the U.S.'s long–term credit rating from "stable" to "negative." The International Monetary Fund is considering replacements for the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen has also warned, "The most significant threat to our national security is our debt." The loss of confidence in America's economy isn't because we're not raising the debt limit fast enough: it's because we have no credible plan to ever stop raising it.

Everyone agrees that the debt is dangerous. Refusing to confront it makes it more so. Granting the government another blank check in the form of a no-strings attached, borrowing increase is akin to waiving a white flag of surrender to the debt.

American families cannot afford our ever-expanding government. Over the last few decades federal spending has grown much faster than American earning power. Middle-income Americans' earnings have increased by 29 percent since 1970 but government spending has risen by a whopping 242 percent. A nation that owes more than it can ever produce is destined for bankruptcy.

That is why this moment must be leveraged to force deep, long-term structural reforms to the way the government spends money. The nation must balance its budget, or it will go bust. Republicans should oppose the increase unless Congress first passes a balanced-budget amendment that requires a two-thirds majority to raise taxes. Every state except Vermont is required by law to balance its budget.

The reason the country is in such a predicament is because the government does many things it should not do, it cannot do effectively and can't afford to do. More of the same will make things worse than ever.

We must have a balanced budget amendment that requires Congress by law to make the hard decisions it has been avoiding for decades.

Cutting spending is part of the answer, but isn't all of it. In addition to finding ways to save money, members of Congress must work together to reform broken federal programs, restructure government and devolve more activity to the states. Instead of inventing new things the federal government should do, Washington must find ways to let go control and let states take over.

If politicians in Washington aren't forced to do this now, they never will. It’s foolish to believe that if we let the government borrow more, somehow, politicians will choose to draft a budget to put an end to reckless spending later.

History proves otherwise. Congress has raised the debt limit 10 times in the last 10 years, cast hundreds of votes to pass new spending programs and held no votes on a balanced-budget amendment. If politicians are not obligated to balance the budget, it is certain they will continue adding to the deficit by creating new entitlements, like Obamacare, instead of fixing broken programs, like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Endless spending and borrowing is not the answer. It is the enemy. If we choose to surrender to the debt, instead of fighting it, it will surely lead to our demise.