AI IV,

AI: "I wasn't really defending Obama. I was just saying that he inherited a lot of problems from Bush."

Every president and every new Congress inherits problems. So I don't disagree with you on that point. My complaints center on what Obama has done with those problems. So far, his policies have largely made things worse. Bush didn't control spending. Obama makes Bush look like a miser.

AI: " I don't know what he is spending all that money on, but I know a lot of it is on things that I am opposed to."

I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone, including Obama and nay member of Congress who knows what all the money is being spent on. Unfortunately, their not knowing where it is being spent doesn't even slow them down from spending it.

AI: "I am disappointed that he hasn't gotten us out of Iraq."

The cost of the 9-year war effort in Iraq has been less than $1 trillion. Annual single-year deficits under Obama far exceed that right now and according to the administration's own projections annual federal deficits will be in the $1 trillion range for at least the next decade.  

AI: "I believe that part of the problem is the bailout of the banks before he became president and that was the fault of both parties. I don't think they're that different."

As both senator and president, Obama supported the bailouts.

AI: "I know that in the past Republicans have claimed to be fiscal conservatives and Democrats, with the exception of Clinton have not. Why did the Republicans remain silent under Bush?"

To the extent that they support massive expansions of government spending, Republicans were not fiscally conservative. You'll have to ask those Republicans why they went along with such prolifigrte spending. Conservatives protested Bush's wild spending spree and complained loudly of Congress' complicity. Did it escape your notice that they were voted out in 2006? Many Republican politicians lost because Republican voters would not support them and their Democrat-lite approach to fiscal matter.

AI: "The debt has increased under presidents from both parties, there is plenty of blame to go around. I don't know if you will ever get fiscal responsibility from either party."

Interestingly, Obama and the Dems still blame Bush and refuse to accept any responsibility for the effects of their own policies.

AI: "A huge part of the budget is on interest on the debt. It is a mess."

Agreed. It IS a mess. And, since taking office just a year and a half ago, Obamanomics, with the overwhelming support of Dems in Congress, has exacerbated the mess, adding just under $3 trillion to that debt load. The national debt rose just under $5 trillion during the EIGHT YEARS of the Bush administration.

AI: "Are the Republicans going to do anything about the debt if they retake both houses?"

Beats me. I don't have a crystal ball. But it is an almost metaphysical certainty that Obama and the Democrats will spend, spend, spend and beleive that raising taxes on 'the rich' will cure the debt problem.

AI: "If they do more power to them, but I doubt that they will, based on their poor track record and on the fact that they are unwilling to cut defense spending."

Defense spending amounts to about 20% of the annual federal budget. I'm sure there is wasteful spending there, just as there is in every area of federal expenditures. But the defense budget is not the cause of the massive federal debt. And cutting defense spending when your country is at war doesn't seem like a very bright or purdent thing to do.

Hopefully, Republicans have heard the message of the electorate to stop the ginormous expansion of government and its attendent increased spending. If they don't stop it, in two years, many of them will follow to the 'looking for work' category the Dems who have ignored the electorate in passing massive increases in government and government spending. As a whole, liberal Democrats (but I repeat myself) have no intention of cutting spending. It is their view that the American people pay way too little in taxes and so they see raising taxes as the solution to their inability to control their addiction to spending.

As I said in another thread, they believe the cure for fiscal alcoholism is more beer. I disagree.

later. iowan15