Someone turn out the lights, we're out of here! (never mind, they'll get turned off soon enough)

Well. we did it. An incompetent congress, directed by an incompetent president has taken our national debt to a whole new record! Sometime this week (as I write this on Dec 23, 2011) our national debt has exceeded our GDP.

Now some of you do not know what a GDP is. (some of you don't care, but then you shouldn't be reading this - move on to some of my light hearted ones - they get all the hits anyway). GDP, or Gross Domestic Product is the total of the value of all the goods and services produced/performed in the U.S. combined with the value of all the goods produced and exported, minus the value of the goods imported. Or, GDP = private consumption + gross investment + government spending, + (exports - imports).  There are other ways of measuring GDP, but in theory at least they should all add to the same number.

What really bothers me is this travesty occurred while Congress was battling over extending a social security tax suspension for two months. TWO FREAKIN' MONTHS!! Whether you think the idea is a good one or not (a whole other subject) is there anyone that thinks congressional leaders, members, and staff should have devoted the better part of a month on extending a tax break for TWO MONTHS. They fought over it for half the time that the tax will be deferred! Then they have to do it all over again! This is why government does not work!!

The only solution I see is to end the cycle of re-election that has these anointed ones scrambling for sound bites every day instead of doing their job, is term limits. If you read the history of Constitution of the U.S. the designers were wondering about the clauses that cover terms and eligibility for office. They were worried about getting good people to run and serve. The House of Representatives is the "people's" chamber. The representatives were to come to Washington, serve their term, and GO HOME! The founders kept the term at two years to insure that people would serve, knowing they could go back to "real life" in just two years. If they served two terms, it would only be four. Now we have people that spend their entire careers there. John Dingell was sworn in under a flag with FORTY-EIGHT STARS!! That's right, he was sworn in to his first term in 1955!! That is ridiculous! I don't care how good a job he is doing, he should go home and let someone else serve.

We have a very important election coming up. We need to vote for people, not politicians. We need to vote for people that will help set up term limits for congress. This is the only way to remove the pressure that makes these people, when elected, go crazy and to be afraid to make the decisions that need to be made. The spending we are doing now at the federal and state levels CANNOT BE SUSTAINED! I don't care how many millionaires you tax, it cannot be sustained. We have to CUT SPENDING! We have to get people in Washington that will do so.

If you want an education into our national debt and spending read this post from earlier in the year:
http://justsomeposts.blogspot.com/2011/07/im-back-and-were-all-broke.html