how about an option of All of the Above!

Let's not pay them and their staffs and see how they deal with it. Also make them pay some if not all of the premium ffor their medical benefits. And last but not the least...if they do not show up to work do not pay them for those days. Make THEM more accountable.

The so call representatives are more concerned about up man ship rather than how they all are hurting the average American. There salaries should be deducted for each day the budget isn't work out to support Americans who work for a living.

Judging from the behavior of the players, the problem is all of them. If you are in a crisis and need to cut the budget you can always find non-essential fat that can be eliminated. You have to look at your budget one line at a time and decide what you are willing to forgo. It is easy at this level to realize what is essential and what is not. They are just not willing to put aside partisan politics and do a serious look at who is spending how much and on what.

Cutting "the fat" is not as easy as it sounds. It's always someone else's benefit that constitutes 'fat' and your benefit that is essential.
The problem with this impasse is that the Dems. and the Rep. leadership have tried to compromise, but the Tea Partiers refuse to go along with their disempowered leaders.

Enviro73

I agree, all of the above are responsible. i think their pay should be suspended until a workable budget is passed, and then all of them should have a 10% cut in salary and their expense accts etc should be decreased. obviously they have a job to do and they are failing at it, we should vote all of them out of office, no matter the affiliation. It is a shame to see the military families ,worried about if they will get paid, it is enough to have their loved ones in harms way. This congress better remember who is voting back home, cut the government budget just as we have cut our own budget. many of the people in the nation have had to give up necessities, not luxuries, because they can't afford them. let the congressman, worry about where their next check will come from.

Well, I call it "Bullying" from the Republicians because as speaker of the house and his "followers said" we're not going to stop until we get President Obama out of Office.
That's the plan man...

The Priorities campaign believes that America can solve, or start to seriously address, many of the most difficult problems we face. We can create a national budget that is responsive to domestic and international needs. And we can do it without raising taxes or creating new ones.

How? By insisting that Congress create sensible budget priorities. By reducing government waste and using the savings to strengthen American families and communities.





The Priorities campaign focuses on Pentagon waste for two reasons:

•Because a panel of career military experts says cutting the Pentagon budget not only would not harm our defense, but might enhance our national security, and

•Because the $463 billion Pentagon is so unaccountable that not only could the Dept. of Defense not pass an audit, its books are in such bad shape that an audit cannot be performed. See Financial Mismanagement in the Department of Defense Report.



These are problems that Congress created and has allowed to fester because political candidates benefit politically (as in more jobs in their districts) and monetarily (as in campaign contributions) from military manufacturers. Because the men and women in Congress benefit from this broken system, we can't expect them to fix it until Americans demand it, elect new leaders, or both.

Where is the waste?



About three-fifths of the federal budget covers expenses that are written into law, including payment on the national debt, Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. This is usually called "mandatory" or "entitlement" spending.

The part of the budget that the President and Congress create each year is called the discretionary budget. In the just-concluded fiscal year, more than half of the discretionary budget for a toal amount of $463 billion was spent by the Pentagon. These dollars don't include funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan , nor do they include most homeland security programs, which are paid for in other areas of the budget.

In contrast to the $463 billion spent by the Pentagon bureaucracy, look at what we're spending on federal programs that politicians often describe as too expensive:

•$38 billion on K-12 education ,
•$50 billion on children's health insurance,
•$13 billion on humanitarian foreign aid,
•$6 billion on job training,
•$2 billion on renewable energy research,
•$8 billion on the Environmental Protection Agency.

So, then, about 60% of us blame the Republican parties, I'd say, ABOUT TIME WE WOKE UP ! and I am a registered Republican. Remember ! The T(ee hee) party is Republican. I am not a tea partier, and that's for certain ! ! !

I have to add this:
Representative Mike Pence (R-IN)said that "liberals (read Democrats)in the Senate are ready to shut down the federal government rather than end the practice of borrowing money from China to fund abortion providers here at home." To me, that makes it MUCH clearer: The Democrats are unwilling to STOP SPENDING for their favorite projects! And what they say "Republicans are against women's health"? Smoke rings...their are plenty of other places and other federally funded ways to get simple health check-ups! BTW, Planned Parenthood does NOT do mammograms.....

Blaming Democrats for defending social programs they strongly believe in does nothing to reprioritize how America spends its' revenue. How is it reasonable that the top 20 corporations in America effectively not only pay zero taxes on billions of profits or that "corporate welfare" programs subsidize giant oil and agribusiness with additional billions while simutaneously threatening to cut programs that assist the elderly, children and socially disenfranchised who have no political influence?

The only reason we owe China anything is because for the last two decades corporate America has been rewarded for gutting 90+% of our manufscturing capacity and relocating it to China where workers are paid pennies on the dollar. While outsourcing and closing factories has done wonders for Wall Street in has decimated the American middle and working class. Stocks are up. Dividends are up. Unfortunately the American worker has been kicked to the curb to increase profits.

Please don't be distracted by the dog and pony show called congress. Beginning with the Bush tax cuts and 2 UNFUNDED multi-billion dollar wars and the unregulated derivatives casino amongst the Banksters of Wall Street that crippled our economy and destroyed the home values for millions of Americans; the middle and working class of America have seen the greatest transfer of personal wealth to the top 1% in the entire history of America. If you really believe that which party you belong to matters than you have already drank the Kool-aid. We have, through our own inattentive sloth, allowed congress of both houses and all parties to effectively be co-opted by multi-national corporations. Corporations now wield more influence than any single political party or activist group. Just like any other crime all you need to do is follow the money. Who is funding and donating and what agenda are they promoting. Once you peek behind that curtain you realize we are not in Kansas anymore.