It seems that Democrats have no clue what it takes to run a business.  Free Market Principles absolutely escape them.  I work for a Non-Profit company which teaches job skills to underprivileged and disabled adults.  We have a program that places individuals in real-world work environments and under close supervision they are taught what it is to be a responsible employee.  After their training they are taught interview skills and are helped through the process of finding and applying for jobs. We also offer these trainees an hourly wage.  

Now this to me sounds like a pretty good idea.  They get jobs, rely less on taxpayer funded social welfare programs (although they still do get some assistance), and most important I think, they get to have some independence, independence I know that I all too often take for granted. 

Right now my company is trying to figure out a way to continue providing these services now that Health care Reform is looming over us.  According to the legislation, since we pay these trainees hourly, they ARE in fact employees.  Since they are employees they must be given health insurance.  Providing health insurance for these trainees increases the costs to my company to a point where our only real option would be to cut other services we offer in order to pay for this insurance or, the more likely scenario, completely stop the program. 

I’m sure that Liberals would see my company as “Big Business”; therefore “bad” and they would have you believe that we have some secret slush fund of money out there that we are just too cheap, greedy and uncaring to spend. 

Being a non-profit company, every dollar I spend is felt throughout the company.  There are months where I need to choose between getting pens or ink cartridges.  We don’t have any money, hence the moniker “non-profit”. 

I know for a fact that my company is not the only facing this dilemma.  What I’m wondering is…Is subsidizing the health insurance of 5 million people worth all these costs and consequences?

Ried, shockingly, blamed the Bush administration and “8 years of failed policy”.  This, of course is forgetting that the Democrats took control of the House and Senate in 2006 so it was actually 6 years.  Little white lie…I digress.

McConnell blamed the spending of the current administration and the Democrat Majority even though when the Republicans took control of the House and Senate they too spent like drunken sailors (no offense to any sailors that like to drink). 

They both have completely missed the point.  What the majority of the American people would probably agree on is that the one major factor in the financial meltdown and its subsequent spending spree is…drum roll….THE GOVERNMENT!

We need to get these guys out of the way of the free market Capitalist system that has proven effective for over 200 years.  Some of what our country is battling today is the result of the Democrat’s policies.  Some is because of Republican’s policies.  All is because of Government Policies!

Republicans in their usual fashion take this to mean that the voting population is finally seeing things their way.  This is DEAD WRONG!  Historically, whatever party has fallen from grace during the previous cycle ushers the way for the opposite party to power in the following cycle.  Historically.  The environment now is not what it “historically” has been.  We are now living in a world with a 24 hour news cycle, the internet, bloggers, tweets…a world of information is at the populous’ finger tips, just minutes shy of real-time.  (ADD HERE TO SHOW HOW TIMES ARE DIFFERENT) We have a record deficit and we are realizing that the “Change” we voted for has only amounted to MORE spending. 

So what do we do?  We vote them bums out!  We do, after all, have the right to alter or abolish a government that has become harmful to us.  Revolution through the ballot box.  The problem is that politicians will say anything we want to hear and we know it.  So the best bet would be to vote for the opposite party.  In this case Republicans and Conservatives. If we do this we are only going to perpetuate the cycle.  What we need are politicians that only “tow the line” of their constituency.  We need politicians that are free from party pressure and pressure from interest groups that pay the election bills.

It will behoove the Republican Party to remember that during this election cycle they are not only running against Democrats but also against themselves…or the impression of what a Republican is.  We need to get the Independents and Undecided voters to swing right.  It will no longer work to attack the democrats they are running against. Explaining why democrats are wrong is not the same as explaining why republicans are right.  The political environment has become exhaustingly polarized.  It seems clear that politicians disagree with proposed legislation introduced by the opposing party simply because…they are the opposing party.  Didn’t we send these folks to Washington because we thought they would be better for America?  Isn’t refusing to work with the opposite party the same as telling those who voted for them that they are ignorant and wrong?  What we need are politicians that promote the majorities ideals at the same time extending a hand across the aisle to collaborate, to work together.  And remember, just because they don’t agree with you completely does mean they are not being partisan.  Partisanship is a game of give and take… After all, the people whose lives your decisions will affect are not republicans or democrats.  We are Americans. FIND THE MIDDLE GROUND ALREADY!!!!

I think we all secretly crossed our fingers as we rubbed the foil off this scratch off lottery ticket hoping for the big win when we knew deep down that the chances of a our dreams coming true were slim.

In fact, I would argue that Obama is doing exactly what his history as a community organizer and Senator projected he would do. Lets be serious for a moment. What do Senators do besides deliberate? Do they manage a budget? Payroll? Go out in 100 degree heat in a polyester suit trying to find someone to buy a briefcase full of kitchen knives? False! They talk! And when they aren’t talking…they are pondering things to talk about. I’m not even sure they listen! In my opinion it would be more accurate to say that they just wait for their turn to talk.

I find it hard to believe that anyone who voted for Obama is really shocked that he’s having a difficult presidency. Except, of course, those who still believe he’s doing a fantastic job which is a little bit shocking to me. Any news station you watch (I’ll suspend the sermon on media bias for now) shows his shortcomings for all to see! Is it the Tolstoy Syndrome rearing its ugly head again? Can someone be so entrenched in their own political ideologies that their brain will simply not absorb any information that contradicts what they believe? It would appear so! Luckily I’m not an argumentative person so I’ve been able to have fairly civil discussions with supporters of Obama to see that large portions of information are omitted from their mental libraries; scrapping plans for a missile defense system in Poland leading to Russia conducting war games in the region, talks with North Korea leading to Kim Jung Il testing long range missiles, an oil crisis in the Gulf of Mexico getting little attention from the White house…well, this last one may truly be Obama’s Waterloo.

Is the oily tide turning when it comes to Obama’s popularity? Pardoning the pun, I would say yes. Just as with George W. Bush and Katrina, the BP oil leak threatens to dismantle the Hope and Change stereotype of Obama, oily brick by oily brick. Eventually passing blame on previous administrations will lose its luster and Obama truly will have to take credit where credit is due.

I would love to see the Obama’s, Pelosi’s and Reed’s actually give credit to G.W. Bush! After all, was it not his dismal popularity which led these three to gain the power they have now? Republicans beware: I would expect the same ‘thank you’ to be given to the incompetent Democrat’s if/when you win your elections this November.