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Bend over America, here it comes! Apparently the US Senate decided to spend time this week creating four separate Republican budget plans only to turn around and vote them all down along with President Obama’s.Rest assured this entire show was for the benefit of our CSPAN viewing audience.Spending levels for 2013 are already set and passed into law.What the 2013 funding neglects to address though are social security and Medicare.You know, the programs we are required by law to pay into for most of our lives but that congressmen discuss as burdens weighing down our government that should be shaved away.

The reality is that no one has looked at a major scale back of government as a solution for our crippling debt.The framework for debt discussion seems to center around either taxing citizens or cutting essential benefit programs.The reality is that we have a gangling beast of a bureaucracy that would benefit from some weight watchers but no elected official has the guts to make that a mantra, gather colleagues, and build consensus on the matter.I am a realist. I understand it takes more then one.It must also be difficult to tackle something like this when you have a short period of time to make your mark before going back into campaign mode, but we have two political parties who are holding caucus with their party faithful at all levels of government and telling them to stick it to us, keep fighting, and cause gridlock.Well they may not be using those words, but neither party is motivated about helping our country as they are about sticking it to the other party.

All it takes is listening to congressmen and women speak on CSPAN’s American morning a few days in a row to realize that they have no thoughts or motivations of their own.I can sit with my party message and talking points guide and easily guess what each will say.If the message of the political parties would change wouldn’t politics change? I think it absolutely would.This is not to suggest that there are not real differences that will cause robust debate.We should expect that.However, the debate we see them engaging in is a circus designed to keep us fighting over the menu while congress cooks the food how they want it.

Democrats hold blame in that they are afraid to make the spending cuts that matter, such as downsizing government. They won’t shrink government because philosophically they believe government, including departments and staff, are providing solutions to real American problems. In recent press releases congressman Hoyer, with all due respect for his service, talks in the same statement about the need to cut while in the same statement finding ways to spend money on important initiatives.I am not spinning his words here. I am sure he means well and wants to see us continue to fund education and leave social security alone.But when he and others talk about responsible cuts, what does that mean?How we got here almost does not matter because we are here and need solutions.

Republicans hold blame in that they refuse to be realistic about taxing levels for a diversity of Americans and because they talk about our social security money like it’s a big government program that they need to step in and cut up.No thanks! We saw what happens with your method of tax cuts.You cut taxes without creating new revenues or cutting the spending that the cut taxes covered.

As we continue to fight with each other as to whether Republicans or Democrats have the right answer they are both asking us to grab our proverbial ankles.Our only method of fixing this beyond a revolution, which won’t happen until the pain of staying the same finally trumps the pain of change, is to vote out all incumbents and tell anyone campaigning for office that they must work with each department to eliminate obsolete, duplicative, and useless positions.They must stop fraud and match revenues to spending and reform the tax code.If we elect any person for any other reason we could be in serious trouble.The status quo is not acceptable and we need leaders who can handle the job.