Time to pass bills without pork

Both the mainstream media and Democrats are not being fair or honest about the upcoming debt limit decision. For example, they imply that the government will shut down if the debt limit is not raised. They cite examples of previous Republican government shut downs as justification. There are members of Congress who actually advocate the president either ignore the limit or raise it via executive order. They even claim the 14th Amendment grants him that authority. The 14th Amendment Section 4 refers to authorized payments incurred in suppressing insurrection or rebellion. The last time I looked around, there has not been any insurrection or rebellion over the past century.

The government shutdowns they cited were due to Congress not passing a budget, not raising a debt limit. We have been operating on a yearly spending resolution for the past four years. The Senate under Democrat control in 2010 refused to approve the House (Democrat-controlled) budget for fear the voters would vote them out for their proposed massive spending. The same Senate refused to even consider, let alone vote, on Republican proposed budgets for the past two years. Still they accuse Republicans for the lack of action by Congress on budget matters.

President Obama got what he advocated in regards to raising taxes and now demands Congress automatically raise the debt limit. The clear reason is so he can continue spending over $1 trillion more than we take in as revenue. If the House refuses to raise the debt limit, it will not cause a shutdown of the federal government. What it will accomplish instead is prevent the president from spending more than we receive in federal revenue. The truth is the projected revenue for FY-2013 will be roughly $4 trillion. Every prior authorized program such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and yes, even Congressional salaries, will be paid with revenue not a credit card. If the president deliberately diverts funds to his pet programs not approved by this Congress at the expense of entitlements, he should be confronted by the voters and not a Democrat-controlled Senate or Republican House.

Maybe now we can deny the United Nations at least a portion of our 25 percent contribution to their operation. Maybe we can withhold foreign aid, especially to those countries that oppose us at every turn in the UN. One Republican member of Congress in the last session proposed 2.5 trillion in cuts over ten years, which eliminates just a little of the wasteful spending in other than entitlement programs.

It seems both Democrats and the mainstream media have glossed over what is actually contained in the two bills recently passed. Both the bill granting the president to raise taxes included billions in pork spending and the one providing aid to those coping with total destruction of their towns even included a large number spending items referred to as pork.

We as taxpayers should scream to high heaven for public hearings on all future spending bills. We can't rely on the media keeping us informed, therefore divert some of our TV time to watching and listening to CSPAN and House committees dealing with specific spending bills. The Republican House of Representatives under the current speaker has established a policy of no pork to be included in spending bills they pass. Now is the time for us to put a huge fire under our Senators to do the same.

William R. Hadley
Yuma