Absolutely unacceptable! That is how I would describe the inaction on Senator Obama's part when it come to the comments of his pastor. I fully agree with Obama on one point. He is not to blame for what Pastor Wright has and will say. However, attending a church for twenty years that is led by a pastor that says America is to blame for 9-11, uses GD America as if to say our country is in the wrong, and plays the race card to generate support from his congregation, for that Mr Obama is to blame. At any point, Obama could have gotten up and left the church, never to come back. At any point, Obama could have spoken up during the church service to reprimand pastor Wright for his outrageous comments. At any point, Mr. Obama could have had conversation with pastor Wright about his uncalled for comments. Mr. Obama, at any point during his attendance at this anti-American church, could have done any of these things to voice his displeasure with the services message. However, Mr. Obama decided to say or do nothing, which tells me that he did not disagree with anything the pastor was saying. If I was attending a church that spread a message I was uncomfortable with or disagreed with, I would do one of two things. I would either speak up during the service to voice my displeasure or I would never come back to that particular church. Listening to an anti American, racist speach one Sunday and then bringing your family back to that same church the very next Sunday says only one thing to the pastor of that church and it congregation; I agree with you message Mr. Pastor. I agree with your activities congregation. Mr. Obama has shown a great deal of immaturity and an inside glimpse into his appeasement ways. Say nothing, do nothing and anger nobody. This is the democratic party in its purest form. Do nothing, say nothing, and dont anger anybody. Even if it means agreeing with unjust, unfair and downright cruel behavior.

Taxes. Don't we all love them?? Every working American has to pay them, but where does our money go? The spending habits of our United States government is out of control, and there seems to be no accountability. Thousands of dollars paid to a social security system that likely will not be there when we retire. Millions of dollars of funding for a bridge to nowhere. I am serious, google it. The federal government needs to be held accountable when it comes to spending our tax dollars. The United States budget should be posted on the web, on a site that will let you search for spending by using keywords. For example, if you wanted to see how much the government was spending on cancer research, you could type cancer research into the keyword box. This would put the spending plans of OUR governemtn at the finger tips of nearly every American that is interested. The system that we have allowed to perpetuate itself is absolutely ridiculous. We should be ashamed of ourselves, as American citizens, that we have let it happen. That said, we must now demand that it stop! Spending should be made public knowledge, via the internet! Politicans that introduce outrageous spending bills should have to stand before the United States citizenry and explain to us why we need a bridge to nowhere. It seems to me that the United States government is the only one using that bridge, and they are driving our country on the only path available.....to nowhere!!!

One of the most pressing issues in the United States is the current condition of Social Security. The current system is outdated and in much need of reform. The current system was created in 1935. At that tme in our history, the average American lived to be only sixty - three years old. When the system was created, one could not begin collecting their Social Secutiry benefits until they were sixty-five. You do the math. Most people would not live to see retirement. Man have times changed. When the very first Social Secutiry checks were being sent out, there were 42 taxpayers that were funding every one retiree. Today, there are only three taxpayers for every one retiree and by the year 2030 there will only be two taxpayers per one retiree. The system is broken people, and we must demand that the leaders we vote into office fix it! It is not an option. Fix it now or future generations will retire with no Social Security or simply will not be able to retire at all! Every year, our political system borrows and borrows from the Social Secutiy fund. In return, the Social Security fund is given IOU'S for the money that has been borrowed, in the form of treasury bonds. However, ask yourself this. If the government is borrowing all of this money from the Social Security fund, which may I remind you, is money that you and I pay for retirement purposes, how does it plan on paying this money back? The answer is simple and is quite honestly disturbing! Higher taxes, that's how. This is disturbing for this very simple fact. The curreent system of Social Security will begin operating with a deficit in the year 2017. That's right, just nine years from now. The Social Security fund will have to cash in some of their treasury bonds from the government to pay the benifits it can no longer afford. The only problem is that the government does not have a surplus to pay those treasury bonds out. What does that mean you may ask? Higher taxes. It will be the average American worker that will have to pay these treasury bonds, in the form of higher taxes. When you think about this complex system, you can break it down into pretty simple terms. We currently pay a 12.4 percent payroll tax for Social Security. The governemnt borrows any surplus the Social Security system may have. The governemnt can not afford to pay that money back when the Social Security Fund needs it, so they make you and I pay for it. Not only will our Social Security tax go up to twenty percent, but the government will continue to borrow against this fund and will keep raising our Social Security tax to pay the loan back! It's absolutely crazy. It would be like working for a company that takes out a loan to buy new equipment. When it came time for your employer to pay the loan back, they could not afford to do so, so they reduce everyones wages by ten percent to pay back the loan. How is that fair? It's not!!! The government has borrowed our Social Security money, and they are going to make us pay it back!!! How stupid is that, and why in the world should we stand for it? We shouldn't, and that is why I urge all of you to voice your opinion. In Newt Gingrich's book REAL CHANGE, he has a chapter that deals with our need for Social Securty reform. He makes note that a worker who makes forty thousand dollars a year could end up accumulating over three hundred thousand dollars if the government would allow citizens to invest fifty percent of their current Social Security taxes into private accounts. This of course assumes that the investment would be netting returns of seven percent on stocks and 3.5 percent on bonds. Those numbers are very reasonable and would likely not decline. An increase is very possible, however. This amount of wealth accumulation is much greater than the amount of money a typical retiree will receive from Social Security. The private accounts would also be able to be passed down from parent to child, which the current system does not allow. The choice is simple. Change the system and retiree comfortably or be content with the status quo and retire poor, or worse, never retire at all!