Comments about ‘My view: Of all problems, political obstruction is one Americans must solve’

But raw political ideology trumps any desire to solve problems. It seems that our Congressional battle cry has become, "The Party first. The nation second, or third, or fourth or whatever. And the American people? Forget about 'em!"

Solving political obstruction will require compromise; something neither side of the aisle will do!

Sometimes compromise just slows the rate of destruction. Wisconsin was recently moving swiftly toward economic ruin. No compromises in favor of unions would have sustained the destructive trajectory. Compromise would have likely slowed it down or possibly kept it at bay. Governor Walker's agenda, imposed without compromise, has resulted in an a nearly miraculous turnaround for the state's economy. No compromise seems like the right way to go, once you determine which way works.

For people who think $15 trillion in debt is unsustainable and devastating to our country, is it a good thing to compromise and add only $800 billion per year in deficit spending, instead of the full $1.6 trillion requested by President Obama? Without someone stepping in and insisting, without compromise, that we freeze spending at earlier levels, balance the budget, and pay down the debt, how does this problem get solved?

Although there is certainly room for compromise on many issues, I believe our crushing national debt is the result of many years of financial compromise.

The American people are great at problem solving. The Government should get out of the way and let the people solve the problems.

Not all obstruction is bad,

Had the German and Japanese parliaments been more obstructionist in the 1930s, the world would have been saved from enormous suffering and death

If our congress had been obstructionist when Obamacare was being considered, there would be more jobs and a better economy right now.

Had congress been more obstructionist when BO's porkulus was being considered, we'd have $1 trillion less in debt

Had congress been more obstructionist when dudd-frank was being considered, we'd have better credit availability to help our economy grow

But Scott, you are right, sometimes obstruction gets in the way, like when the dems blocked a repub effort to better regulate fannie and freddie, which would have lessened the severity of the current economic malaise

Actually, our republican system of government is also designed to make change inherently difficult, on the theory that only the best ideas would win bipartisan support and be able to pass. Does this mean that some good ideas will fail to gain enough support in Congress? Yes, but that's easily a price worth paying instead of having too many ill-conceived or simply bad laws get passed.

I'm thinking of getting a bumper sticker that says "God Bless Gridlock", to sum it up in terms an OWS protester could grasp.

Today's political standoff is because the two ideologies are fundamentally opposed. You cannot have creaping socialism and bigger, deficit spending governments, and at the same time foster opportunity and promote individual freedom and responsibility, cornerstones of the uniquely American economic experiment.

Norm Ornstein of the (conservative) American Enterprise Institute in an interview recently stated that the obstructionism by Republicans has risen to unprecedented levels. In the past, filibusters were used to prevent legislation from being passed when a party strongly disagreed with the piece of legislation. Today, Republicans are using the filibuster even on non-controversial measures. Simply put, they don't want Obama to get credit for anything good. Mitch McConnell is adhering to his primary goal of making sure Obama is a one-term President, no matter the cost to the country.

One side hopes the economy will fail to take power. Should the other side then work to have the economy fail to take power. Socialism versus tax free oligarchs. Individual freedom lost on mega corporations that are only responsible to be greedy as demonstrated in 2008.

Scott Howell is a voice of reason, and one who will work for honest solutions to vexing problems. Let's break the partisan gridlock in OUR country. Let's be the United States of America again, even as we continue our centuries-long project to re-define those three simple words: "We the people...."