New Jersey did it now why can't the Federal Government?

Living in New Jersey and also being a teacher I have recently felt no love from my fellow citizens.  Actually, when I tell people that I am a teacher I almost feel guilty or they look down on me like I'm some sort of criminal.  I truly love being a high school history teacher, but the political environment has painted a target on all our backs.  Now I realize how the Taliban fighters feel hunkered down in their caves when United States Marines are vigorously hunting them down!

The governor has now signed into law ordering the teachers and other public sector workers that they must pay more to their pension and for some public employees 35% of their health care.  I'm not mad that I have to pay more.  I realize that I, along with my fellow teachers, must help shoulder the burden to help our State get out our this financial debacle.

How did we get into this financial mess is an easy question to answer.  Over the last 20 years, both Republican and Democratic governors have refused to pay into the pension system that they promised us thus ignored the immediate deficit problem.  As they negligently refused to pay into the system, our State had been had been in an economic boom.  Think of your lives since the early 90s...we all for the most part "lived high on the hog" (another family quote that I don't understand.)  We went on vacations, bought high priced vehicles, invested our money in the stock market where many of us did very well, and we also bought for ourselves and our children every new electronic device know to man.  We have to keep up with the Jones don't we?  We also kept expanding the square footage of our homes, by rolling over our houses so we can buy a bigger ones.  They even had TV reality shows that demonstrated people doing this called: Roll This House.  On this show a person would buy a house at a low price, fix it up and by the time you did the renovations the house is now worth 40,000 more thus a profit for you and your family.  We all know that the housing market came to a halt, but many of these house buyers are now stuck with a house that is worth less than they paid for it.  It is also possible due to this greed they can't afford their house.

Now while this was happening I did not begrudge them.  I saw my sisters all buy bigger houses then mine and I was happy for them.  When many people were drastically improving their quality of life so was I.  I was getting raises too, but not at the same magnitude.  While some were expanding their wealth by the tens of thousands I regularly received on the average 1,500 to maybe 2,500 dollars a year.  Don't get me wrong I also over spent like most Americans, but not to the same degree.  I have a modest ranch which still needs work and my vacations were usually no frills.  Give me a beach and I'm happy.

Well while the vast majority of people in our State was living fruitful lives they now with this economic downturn are struggling.  Well the government needs a scapegoat so they chose public employees emphasizing teachers.  The governor, as do I, knew that something had to be done...so my family and 500,000 other public employees took the hit.

I actually voted for the governor because I saw the economic difficulty we were in so I assumed he would cut across the board, but he targeted mostly middle class families.  After a few days, I have come to the realization that we will all be okay.  No matter what happened in Trenton, I was still going to teach my butt off to some of the greatest kids in the State!

Okay New Jersey has tried to trim the deficit and I hope they can get the State moving again, but what about the Federal Government?  Almost14.3Trillion dollars in Debt?  Can they pull off a Chris Christie and severely cut the budget and work towards deficit reduction or is it wishful thinking that our electors will do the right thing?

The answer is in the language that is being thrown about.  The President conducted a news conference today and it was the same old rhetoric: Class Warfare

Rich vs. Poor
Us vs. Them

For the record a quote by the President: "If we do not have revenues, that means there are a bunch of kids out there who do not have college scholarships..."[It] might compromise the National Weather Services. It means we might not be funding critical medical research. It means food inspection might be compromised. I've said to Republican leaders, 'You go talk to your constituents and ask them, "Are you willing to compromise your kids' safety so some corporate-jet owner can get a tax break?"

No matter what your politics, this type of rhetoric doesn't solve problems.  They will have to compromise as Governor Christie did....but will both parties put aside their partisan bickering or is it even too late...14.3 Trillion and counting is a hole that maybe this great country won't be able get out of!