@corbinsmom We need to cut spending (including defense) AND increase revenues by allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire and by closing corporate tax loopholes (2/3's of U.S.corporations currently pay NO taxes). It is estimated that the Bush tax cuts alone will account for 40% of the deficit over the next ten years! Anyone who says they can reduce the deficit by only cutting spending and not addressing tax rates is lying. Period!

The strength of this country is the middle class. The key thing to realize is that the capitalism we enjoyed in this country from 1946 to 1980 is NOT the capitalism we have today. The "social compact" which allowed the middle class to grow for generations has been taken away. The rich have gotten MUCH richer, while the wages of average Americans have stagnated. Capitalism can not survive unless ALL Americans are vested in it's success. "Rigging" the system to favor one class of people is a disaster. We MUST return to a more equitable system like we had in the 50's & 60's.

Here are some startling FACTS that conservatives don't want to acknowledge:

Back in the 70s, the top 1 percent earned about 8 percent of all income. Today, they earn about 21 percent of all income.

The wealthiest 1 percent of all Americans own more wealth than the bottom 95 percent combined.

According to Forbes, the 400 wealthiest Americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans combined.

The poorest 50 percent of all Americans collectively own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States.

Median household income in the United States is down 7.8 percent since December 2007 after adjusting for inflation.

The top 0.01% of all Americans make an average of $27,342,212. The bottom 90% make an average of $31,244.

In 2010: 37 percent of all income gains went to the top 0.01 percent of all income earners. 56 percent of all income gains went to the rest of the top 1 percent. 7 percent of all income gains went to the bottom 99 percent.

If you had trouble paying your bills, would you continue to buy expensive gifts for your wealthiest friends? Of course not. Yet that is exactly what the Federal government is doing for big corporations and the richest Americans.

Congress needs to get busy and come up with a budget that incorporates reasonable spending cuts to entitlements & defense, and tax reform that will close loopholes and end subsidies for big corporations and the wealthiest 3% of Americans. Shared sacrifice is the key to controlling our national debt, and compromise is the only way forward.

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