First of all Herb said the people who were elected into office had very "clear cut" ideas to reduce the deficit. I'm still waiting to hear them.

"Cut spending" is not a clear cut idea. I believe James Madison said the same thing 200 years ago after Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase.

Welfare is not a new program under Obama. I agree there are people who abuse the system, but there will always be people who will abuse any system. Again, that is not a clear cut idea, it's common sense, and people have been saying it for 70 years.

We can debate all day about who wasted more taxpayer money, Ted Stevens (with the help of Sarah Palin) or John Murtha. Both on different sides of the aisle. Both wasted millions. Everyone in Washington is more worried about their reelection than the people.

My concern is one side's preoccupation with giving tax cuts to rich people thinking their riches will trickle down to the middle class. How about giving the breaks to the middle class? Rich people have more deductions - again, Warren Buffet pays less than his secretary. A blanket statement that says they create jobs is ridiculous. Corporations are paying CEO's 100x more than they have in the past - even when they don't produce. Moving jobs to foreign countries may give the stockholders more in their dividends and help Pat Toomey get elected, but laying off all their employees makes things worse. Getting laid off, then getting sick is a death sentence.

Throughout history, the strength of a nation has been measured by the strength of the middle class. There will always be rich and there will always be poor. When the disparity between the two increases the way it has been in the past several years, more and more people fall into the poor category. Therein lies the problems we are facing today.