For those preaching the “red state” welfare, I have a proposition for you. Let’s reduce the taxes my state provides and receives to/from the federal government “dollar for dollar”. But t the federal government must rescind all mandates with the funding they currently provide. Get out of our schools, health care, highways, public transportation, welfare….etc. and let us manage and fund it on our own.

That also means that I don’t pay to rebuild the Atlantic City Boardwalk, water proof the NYC subways, and all the other local “benefits” in the $60 billion Hurricane Sandy bailout. I don’t have a problem helping the people in NY and NJ getting back on their feet, but the Boardwalk should have been insured, and the NY Subway folks have known for years that the subway system was exposed and did nothing about it. That’s not a crisis, it’s irresponsibility.

If the folks in NY, NJ and IL want to fund massive benefit programs for their citizens, let them fund it. If not, they would have that choice also. But don’t ask someone living outside your boundaries to fund irresponsibility where I don’t even get to vote on it.

So the stinking democrats create two stinking messes and then THEY hold out fixing one of the messes as a bargaining chip for making the other mess worse.

And we should seriously consider this. Yeah, right.

(For example, of the top ten public universities half are in California)

I have no problem with lower taxes, especially my own. As a Republican, I have issue with Messrs Norquist and Gleason (which I gather is now two heads on one body) telling that Rep Issa is foward-thinking when he proposes law that any constitutional lawyer would tell you is a piece of garbage.

Is there any reason we cannot go back to Eisenhower rates? Can you just imagine how he would be treated these days? I imagine not enough of my fellow Republicans understand what real sacrifice is about. I hear it preached often, practiced little.

I don’t see the trend by govorning party affiliation. While I agree something needs to be done and I support this plan, the partisan tone is misguided. I can’t stand the blame game that has been going on for the past 5 years. Lets agree that its everyones fault and actually do something to fix it!

But I think it is no secret that a number of the Red State Governors who want to eliminate income and corporate taxes and shift to sales taxes for revenue want to wage war against the poorer citizens, who do have to spend everything to survive.

Now kick unionized government workers, and that can be a trifecta for the wealthy.

But how much of the pension gap has been the result of a more then decade long pattern of very low interest rates, that prevent pension funds from growing at the expected rate if interest rates were more in line with historical trends?

Yes, there needs to be reforms in government pensions, so that a person doesn’t retire with hundreds of thousands of dollars in unused sick pay, etc. But reforms cannot hit prior agreed to benefits, and many States are moving forward in curbing those excesses for future employees.

But how about reforms in the extremely generous retirement packages the elected officials vote for themselves? Yes, even in red states. Greed is greed.