The public needs to wake up. If the Affordable Care Act (debatable that it is affordable) is so great, why are all Washington legislators and their staff exempt from the individual mandate forced on the public? And why wasn’t President Obama the first to sign up?

Washington is also trying to scare people into thinking that the U.S. will default on its loans if the debt ceiling isn’t raised. The nation can’t default on the loan payments — it is unconstitutional to do it so, therefore, it won’t happen.

What will happen, though, is that Congress will be forced to balance the budget, which has not been done in years, and the government will have to live within its means, just as the rest of us have to.

Why do voters continue to give them a credit card with no limits?

On March 16, 2006, Barack Obama was quoted as saying, “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our government’s reckless fiscal policies. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit.”

Interesting how it is OK for him to increase the debt limit in 2013 under his own administration.

Members of Congress have forgotten they are public servants, not an elite class of citizens, and voters have let them.

Alison Jacobs, Auburn

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