I don't know about anybody else, but it has been sooo frustrating watching legislators gamble with my future and the futures of my children's children for their political gain. I can't vote on the Bailout Proposal and we know the devil is in the details [which will be forthcoming].
But daggone it, there is 1 vote we can make which can make a difference for generations to come and Friday's debate reiterated that fact.
Our nation's economy is in the toilet and no one wants a new President that will be the one to flush it. So when Lehrer asked:
As president, as a result of whatever financial rescue plan comes about and the billion, $700 billion, whatever it is it's going to cost, what are you going to have to give up, in terms of the priorities that you would bring as president of the United States, as a result of having to pay for the financial rescue plan?
Source
OK Jim, you've got my complete, undivided attention.
MCCAIN: How about a spending freeze on everything but defense, veteran affairs and entitlement programs.
LEHRER: Spending freeze?
That's right Jim. He said spending freeze on everything but defense, et cetera, et cetera. Hey Jim, I can here the WTF in your voice. So please Senator McWar and more War, explain....
MCCAIN: I think we ought to seriously consider with the exceptions the caring of veterans national defense and several other vital issues.
OK Senator Obama, bail us out....
LEHRER: Would you go for that?
OBAMA: The problem with a spending freeze is you're using a hatchet where you need a scalpel. There are some programs that are very important that are under funded. I went to increase early childhood education and the notion that we should freeze that when there may be, for example, this Medicare subsidy doesn't make sense.
Let me tell you another place to look for some savings. We are currently spending $10 billion a month in Iraq when they have a $79 billion surplus. It seems to me that if we're going to be strong at home as well as strong abroad, that we have to look at bringing that war to a close.
same source
The HATCHET vs. SCALPEL and the pundits accuse Obama as being non-responsive or dismissive regarding our economic turmoil. Not so...or they just didn't want to acknowledge it. Whatever, but I recognize without the help of the media that Senator Barack Obama is the only choice we have in this Presidential election cycle with the ability to look at the broad spectrum of 21st century issues facing our country with the measured precision and temperament of one should expect from the most powerful man of the free world.
No election has been more important in my lifetime. I can only hope and pray that we get it right this time.