Election time

So...big elections in three weeks, and I have to admit that I have spent little time thinking about it. There are a couple of reasons for this, including general busy-ness, and disinterest in the opposing factions, and the fact that there is little of note that I get to vote for. We do have a Gubernatorial election here, featuring an incompetent incumbent against a bland, hard-to-get-excited about challenger. Snooze.

The bigger issue is what happens in the House and Senate, which seems to be very much up in the air. Right now, it looks like the Republicans will take the House (although that could still swing a lot in either direction) and the Democrats will retain the Senate (a little more of a sure thing). And I have no idea what to make of the Tea Party, which seems to be a legitimate movement fronted by has-been and never-were Republican candidates.

Overall, it is a tough year to be an incumbent...which is fine by me, as it is usually way too easy to be an incumbent. As Congress and the President continue to throw piles and piles of money belonging to future generations at completely ineffective (and in some cases even counter-effective) solutions, it seems like the electorate is maybe waking up for a brief moment to protest.

It is hard to say what the big issue of this year is, but I almost want to say that it is the deficit. Not that anyone from either party is really offering a realistic plan to spend less than what we take in...but they sure seem to be talking about it. It would be better if they were talking about actually balancing the budget, as opposed to cutting the deficit in half or some other equally lame goal. It would be even better than that if there were serious discussions of spending controls, but now I am just dreaming.

My biggest peeve is the notion that a huge portion of the budget "can't be cut" because it is for Social Security and Medicare. Bullshit, I say...I feel no moral obligation to make good on promises that baby boomers made to themselves to require me to pay for their retirement, AND to pay off the massive debt they ran up because they were never willing to pay for what they asked of the Government. This is the generation that got us into this mess, and it is totally preposterous to suggest that they are somehow exempt from getting us out of it.

Anyway, I gotta go feed some babies before I get on too much of a rant:-)