Omnibus Bill.  $410 Billion dollars for 7 months.  8000-9000 earmarks depending on who you get your information from.  They only account for 2% of the spending, so what the heck.  Eight percent increases to many government agencies.  Who cares that some watchdogs are pointing out some of these agencies already had major stimulus money added to their accounts.  And for us Oregonians, why worry that our own legislature passed a $175 billion state stimulus package back in January, most of which is for deferred maintenances projects.  So what we have spent $750 billion dollars to bail out banks from bad debts.  Who cares that we spent over $700 billion dollars in tax relief and pet projects to stimulate the national economy.  Who cares that the current budget plans to double our nation's deficit.  Who cares that Speaker Pelosi thinks we need to be open to another stimulus bill.

WAIT!!!  I CARE!!!  What the heck are we doing?  Almost every day I have to tell my kids, "no, we can't buy that right now."  Money is tight, we over extended ourselves a little bit, and it feels like every news cycle we are, as a nation, spending more money that we don't have.  What happened to the ideas of 'pay as you go', of fiscal responsibility.  What the heck ever happened to leading by example.  If this is the role models that Washington, D.C. and Salem are going to present themselves as, HOW am I to use them to teach my own children.  What happened to the lessons I learned as a child during the late 70's and early 80's.  I remember that times were tough.  My dad had to find a job 3 hours away and was gone Sunday night to Friday night, and that job was a huge cut in pay to the job that went away.  My mom worked two and sometimes three part time jobs to help make up the difference.  Our home wasn't the greatest.  During the summer my parents were always working on some part of the house to make sure that it stayed over our heads.  Winters were spent patching holes in the roof to stop the latest leak that the most resent storm had created.  Those lessons of tightening the belt. Those lessons of doing what you had to to provide for your family.  Are they all for not?  Have we drifted so far from the principles that founded our country that we can not handle a little pain.  Growing up, tough times were opportunities to build character.  Now as an adult, shouldn't these tough times be an opportunity to SHOW my character.

I CARE!!!  My family has made many many changes to help make cuts in our budget to make sure we can get by.  For example, since I am a flooring contractor, and the trade has now slowed down, and I am home more often than on the job, I have started cooking from scratch.  No more boxed meals, no more cans of chili or soup.  I have started using a bread machine to make all of our own bread.  We have been selling material items that we don't need anymore on ebay, craigslist, and other sites that we can interest.  We have always donated our used clothing that were still in good shape to thrifts stores, but we have also started giving those clothes directly to families we know that aren't as well of as we are.  I am using this 'crisis' to show my family the true difference between needs and wants.  It hasn't been easy, but my Great Grandmother survived the Great Depression, and thank God, she lived long enough that I got to know her and learn from her. 

I CARE!!!  That our government seems to forget the lessons of the past.  That our politicians are so tied up in fighting with each other that the few good ideas that do get presented, seem to get instantly dismissed since it wasn't from the correct person of power.  Look at JFK, look at Reagan,  Different political parties, but same actions to get the nation out of a recession.  Cut those taxes.  If we are going to spend money, let's spend it on needs.  Roads (I-5 and the 205 in Portland have my vote), bridges, health care safety nets (not nationalized health care), individual schools.  Things we need for our society to function.  I wish that our government would take a look at our energy policy.  Do they not realize that one of the major components of our current recession was fuel prices.  At one point my wife and I were spending over $400.00 a month in gas.  That was just to get back and forth to work and doctor's appointments.  It almost broke us.  It did break many people.  Combine that with rising food, service, and material product price increasing (takes fuel to get them to market, and there is only so much a manufacturer/producer can absorb), then toss in a bad choice in mortgage choice, and well, we are living through that combination.  Why not toss the automakers some incentive to put cars on the market that get great gas mileage instead of putting standard on them that can't be met yet.  Just one idea the government could offer major tax incentives for the first company to put a car that gets 100 mpg.  And a smaller to the second.  Money talks to these large companies. 

It is time for the government to tighten it's own belt.  If they don't have the money then doesn't spend it.  I have never been a fan of President Clinton, but I believe that we can learn a lot from him and the Republican congress at the time.  A balanced budget makes many voters happy, and can be a big foot in the door to reelection.  Democrats and Republicans need to really look at the the elections of 2006 and 2008.  Republicans were tossed out of power not because their fiscal conservative backgrounds were considered bad from the country, but for two main reasons.  One was the support of an unpopular war.  But the other was because they were not being fiscally conservative.  I predict that the first party to embrace fiscal conservativism will be the winner of the 2010 election cycle.