[johniegrad]

Good article. I think we sometimes lose perspective on the long term view when we deal with day to day “crises”.

[Non-Sequitur]

If, as many expect, the Democrats lose effective or actual control of Congress in the November elections, it is likely to be because the public has risen up and rejected the party that has brought us these intolerable multitrillion-dollar deficits with a budget proposal that fails even to propose a path out of the morass.

Which would mean that they expect the Republicans to come up with a path to get us out of the multitrillion-dollar deficits. I hope we have a plan.

[OldCorps]

btt

[ClearCase_guy]

I want less spending by the government.

Tax cuts would be nice, but they are not my focus.
I'm not talking about a reduced rate of increase in the growth of government programs.
I'm looking for 10% annual reduction in government spending each year, every year, until we don't have a deficit.

[bitterohiogunclinger]

“..during the George W. Bush presidency of 2001-09, most Democratic voters came — for the first time — to loudly, emphatically and constantly attack deficits.”

And clearly they had such huge concerns about deficits that they immediately launched massive programs to reduce them?

Anyone with a functioning brain cell knows that the only thing DemonRATs care about is being in power, and they will destroy anything and everything to achieve that.

[arthurus]

private armies were formed

It is my understanding that "private armies" were instrumental to the expansion of the Republic's empire. A wealthy man would raise an army to go conquer and plunder a foreign land. The troops shared in the booty and Rome then sent governors. The permanent professional army did not come until later.

[sodpoodle]

**Then in 1994, Newt Gingrich and the new Republican majority championed trying to get to a balanced budget (and succeeded, with Bill Clinton in 1997).**

Long past time for the GOP/RNC to prepare, present and publish a PLATFORM. Use the best think tanks, macro-economists etc., & spell out policies that candidates will embrace & TEA partiers can support.

Keep it simple and pro-Constitutional Republic in its entirety.

[jersey117]

Not broken. Just power and control hungry. There would be an easy fix if a few statesmen were to emerge and call obama out on his socialist/Marxist policies. I have not given up hope that some heroes will step up and save us from the wanna be dictator in our White House.

[fightinJAG]

In fact, as many have observed recently, our government is working just fine -- blocking the enactment of unpopular laws by a government that is out of step with the people. There is nothing new in that. I served in the Reagan White House and with Newt Gingrich in the 1990s. I recall feeling both times that government was broken -- the filibuster was blocking our majority rule -- because we couldn't get "vital" legislation enacted. (In fact, both times I was involved, inter alia, in the failed effort to close down the Department of Education, saving only its essential student loan functions.) We overreached. We got a lot done, but only that with which the public was comfortable.

Yep, our government is not broken. It is working exactly as intended. We The People are a huge part of the checks and balances under our Constitution and we are working as hard as we can to STOP a Marxist transformation of our form of government.

Other administrations, including Jimmy Carter's, complained that government was broken because they generally were incompetent to lead.

Can't say this doesn't apply here as well. Obambi is incompetent. I even fear he may be less than psychologically intact. But whatever, he is a horrible, horrible, horrible politician. In the end, he has/had some charisma, but he has no political skills whatsoever. He is just incompetent on every scale.

However, a form of government and the public are functioning adequately not only when they block bad or unacceptable law (as currently is the case) but when they are able to solve great dangers to the nation. We may soon get a test on that second matter.

Sigh. We The People are exerting a positive influence on our national security by opposing Obambi's dangerous bumbling on terrorism and so on. But this is not a realm where there is a large margin for error.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Some of the things that I have read that helped bring down the ancient Roman Empire were:

1) Undermining of the currency system,
2) A very large standing army to quell any possible rebellions in the lands Rome controlled,
3) A very large bureaucracy.

The army and the bureaucracy required huge amounts of money to keep employed.

America’s military and law enforcement is in 143 countries and our bureaucracy is beyond outlandish. Since we took the Dollar off of the gold and silver standards it has become practically worthless.

We are definitely following in the footsteps of the ancient Roman Empire. We are only doing it bigger, better and faster.

[GoldenPup]

Is Our Government Really Broken?

No. We have a Marxist POTUS and a large part of the government is doing exactly right...resisting socialist programs, fighting for the American way, and supporting the majority of the People, who oppose socialism in America. FIGHT ON!!!