Dear Editor:

In his State of the Union Address, the proposals the president outlined for additional spending (he called investing), would add to an existing obscene national debt and give reasons, in the minds of the informed, to question his motives. Many feel the country is already on the brink of bankruptcy and more spending would surely hasten that happening. Sadly, many people are either not paying attention, don't care, or don't fully understand the effects of more spending. Normally, a responsible Congress would be expected to neutralize or ignore such misguided thinking, but many people don't realize, for the last two years, the Congress has been eager to join the President in a spending orgy - this, after having taken an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.

The people corrected half of the spending problem by electing a conservative majority in the House, although they did not evict some of the socialist leaning Democrats. This seemed obvious from some of the opposition rhetoric during debate on repeal of the health care bill, which could only be described as shameful. It is expected that every congressperson have a reasonably good knowledge of the Constitution, but it appears that is not the case. Examples paraphrased: a) one career congresswoman opined that it was unconstitutional to deny citizens free health care, adding something about Constitutional rights under the commerce clause. Commerce is buying, selling, or trading in merchandise, commodities, goods, wares, etc.; all tangible items, and has nothing to do with health care. b) Another career congressman from Atlanta declared that free health care was a Constitutional right everyone was entitled to. Such rhetoric brings to mind the odds of irresponsible people, in positions of responsibility producing irresponsible results. Now is the time for term limits and a balanced budget.

For decades, the practice of creating benefits, today referred to as "entitlements" paid out of the public treasury, has corrupted the process of electing those who govern us by creating voting blocs of those receiving benefits. Obamacare was planned to be the mother of all voting blocs, creating tens of millions of voters loyal to the Democratic party who created it. This was a political coup of colossal proportions. How tragic that so many so-called educated people take our security and freedoms for granted and give little thought, or take any action, to protecting and preserving them. Failing to do that has been the downfall of every great nation in the history of man. Is there time, and is there a will of the people, to reverse this path to ruin? Those questions are now before us, and time has no patience; it waits for no man.