And today's post is... ranting all over the place, I guess

So with the raising of the debt ceiling, Congress is all out in the streets proclaiming how the President has ruined the US's credit rating and destroyed the economy.  Sad when our own government need to take Gov't 101. I'm not a fan of many of President Obama's policies either, but the President doesn't have the authority to spend money (with some very small exceptions). Per the Constitution, the authority to tax & spend lies with Congress, & every member of Congress, no matter what party, no matter now or in the past, has worked diligently to get us into this massive cluster f*ck.

And honestly, the responsibility for this mess lies with TWO sources: the governmet and the American people. This is our own fault... we demanded the government produce all these goods and services, whether it was military spending, pork barrel projects (notice how when it's in your neighborhood it's a good thing? Everywhere else it's pork?) or social programs, and the government - including members of both parties - spends and gives us exactly what we asked for.

To be honest,  my main beef with Congress lies not in what they've done, but in their failure to take responsibility. I've screwed up in life - lots. But since I've been a mature adult (I'll argue with friends about the "mature" label later ;-) ), when I screw up I admit it, take responsibility, apologize, make efforts to fix it, & move on. Gov't lack of responsibility is what drives MY total lack of respect for them. If they'd take responsibility, I'd be willing to move past it.

Plus, I think the people in power are so full of themselves and so enamored of hearing their own voices, I swear they're blinded to the wishes and reactions of the American people.  This nice little article in The Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/08/independents-hate-both-parties-as-never-before/243162/) echoes what's being seen more and more around the country:  that both major parties are hemorrhaging members - mostly younger people who aren't willing to sit around and let someone else speak for them - who are re-registering as independents.  I like the way one reader commented about the major parties in an online comment:  "It's like trying to decide between two bowls of crap that you're forced to eat and basing your decision on whether you'd prefer having corn or peanuts in it."