I found President Obama’s speech tonight was right on point. I thought it was funny when he pointed out that they should not continue to give tax breaks for the big companies who can afford to have lobbyist and everyone stood and clapped. This is funny to me because the same ones that are standing and clapping are the ones who get their pockets lined with money by these lobbyist.
I believe they should enact penalties for congressmen who receive money from lobbyist and also penalties for those large companies who send the lobbyist. Maybe the lobbyist is such a touchy area that it doesn’t get talked about enough.
I like how he spoke about rebuilding the United States of America with jobs rebuilding bridges and putting more teachers back to work. He spoke about cutting payroll taxes for small businesses that hire more employees and giving raises.
These tax breaks make sense because if they cut taxes in half for those who hire more employees, they will in effect not decrease taxes if twice as many employees are working and paying taxes. But this is pretty much for everyone who is not working for the government in Washington, DC.
Why don’t we review who is allowed to pass the raises for Congress. While the rest of the country is hurting for income, Congress passes their own raises in the past year. How is this possible when our government, although not perfect, is based on a system of checks and balances. The government had emergency sessions to pass a budget to make sure our military received their checks on time, but not once did they discuss taking a cut in their own pay to help the USA.
Congress will be quick to point the finger at companies who received TARP money and paid bonuses, but refuse to look at their own house to see where they can cut their own income in this country that is running into a bigger deficit every year. Therefore there should be a committee or another organization who has to sign off on Congress’ raises.
But let’s not stop with addressing Congress’ current income and raises, what about their ridiculous pension plan. It is crazy that someone who serves one term of office can basically retire with a full pension and medical benefits for life. That person doesn’t even have to show up for all of their votes on different bills. Why not cut their pensions in half and make them pay for their own health insurance?
Salaries, pensions raises and lobbyist have been the infection we have suffered in Congress for quite some time and probably won’t be addressed anytime soon. I did believe tonight’s speech by President Obama was right on point and did not feel that it was to boost a re-election campaign. It was a wake up call for Congress to act and act now.
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