Six More Years!! Six More Years!!

Idaho's Senator Mike Crapo has announced he is running for re-election.  As expected, his announcement is the boiler-plate "Let's fight together for our precious Idaho values."  Noticeably absent is anything about fighting against the burgeoning National Debt, although on his official website, he says, "Addressing our national debt remains a top priority for me in the Senate. Working collaboratively with my colleagues, I continue to press for reforms that place us on a long-term, sustainable fiscal path."

How ya doin' on that TOP PRIORITY, Senator Crapo?

Let's see... he's been a senator since 1999, and was a congressman for a couple terms before that.  Maybe I'm not very good at charts-and-graphs, but that kinda seems like about the time our National Debt really went totally NUTS!  (See attached chart.  I got it off the Wikipedia - hopefully it's accurate.  The red line is the "acknowledged" National Debt; the black line includes the also-owed entitlements like Social Security and Medicare.  Why shouldn't they be included in the debt load?)

I don't mean to pick on Crapo.  Senator Risch, and my Congressman Simpson say pretty much the same thing.  "Re-elect us, to fight to restore fiscal responsibility, and reduce the National Debt!  blah-blah-blah."  I'm sure they would blame the Democrats in charge, but the Republicans have held the reins pretty much half the time, and I haven't noticed great strides at paying off what we owe.

Either these guys really aren't that interested, and are mostly interested in getting re-elected... or they are REALLY POOR FIGHTERS!  Might there be some other explanation?

The Founding Fathers got 'most everything right... I only wish they'd also included: 1) a balanced budget amendment (we have one in the Idaho Constitution!), and 2) term limits for members of Congress.

As far as I'm concerned, the only reason for voting for Senator Crapo is, whoever the Democrats run will be even worse.  That's hardly a ringing endorsement.  I don't s'pose if we keep reelecting the same honchos, we should really expect anything to change.  Sigh...