The liberals in this country have spent the last 4 plus years deriding president Bush and opposing virtually every policy Bush has brought to the table. This has led to a decmation in their ranks. Yet, in their thickheadedness, they refuse to acknowledge their own role in their downfall.

President Bush is submitting a budget of $2.57 trillion dollars to Congress. As I stated in a previous article, that's too much. It is the equivalent of a worker making $20,000 and spending $25,000....while it may work for awhile, in the long term it's going to eat you up.

The unfortunate truth of the matter is, the budget Bush has submitted, while far too large to begin with, will be inflated with all the pork that the House and Senate can muster. It will end up larger than the budget he submitted, most likely by a fair margin, creating a horrendous deficit to add to our already staggering national debt.

Yes, we DO need to ensure health care for all Americans. Given our level of spending, it is reasonable and practical. Yet the Democrats have, at virtually every turn, obstructed efforts to make real changes to DECREASE medical costs to make the longterm goal of universal health care more realistic. The simple fact is, health care costs have risen in some areas at rates up to TEN TIMES the rate of inflation, and must be held in check somehow before universal health care is practical. We are NUMBER ONE in the world for per capita health care spending, and yet our life expectancy is 17th; our infant mortality rate ranks similarly low among developed nations.

Yes, we DO need to ensure that every American has enough food to eat, but the Democrats have continually supported farm subsidy programs that date back to the Depression era practice of paying farmers NOT to grow things, and have rallied forth with cries of "racism" every time personal accountability is brought to question.

We CAN and we SHOULD be the healthiest, most productive country in the world with the best standard of living. It is a goal that is easily attainable, given our vast national resources and adequate labor pool. But we cannot do this by opposing every meaningful reform offered by the opposition party. We need to offer counter solutions and suggestions that better manage the resources at our disposal, not snipe and complain at every move the president makes. The word "obstructionist", tossed out at a certain Senate Democrat, certainly applies here, though it is a label the Democrats detest.

(as for the war expenditures, it bears repeating that the vast majority of the House AND Senate voted FOR this war; their commitment to the use of force MUST include a commitment towards proper resolution of the conflict).

Bush's budget still needs trimming. Although I am appalled by its size and scope ($8566.67 per man woman and child in this country), Bush is wisely implementing a plan that GRADUALLY reduces the budget. That, not raising taxes, is the only longterm solution that makes sense.

To put it simply:

I don't agree with the man, didn't vote for the man, but give him my full support when it comes to the necessary reduction of the size and scope of the federal government. While this does affect programs I would like to see continue unaffected, the Democrat response should be to suggest alternate cuts that will obtain the same results. We need solutions, not more bickering, obstuctionism, and backstabbing. Bush is not driven by any "evil" motives, but by a simple desire to do what the American public have proclaimed they WANT him to do, and to that end we should support him.