People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones Mr Wear.

Sequestration is to force the Republican-controlled Congress to actually do their jobs & make budgetary decisions that would reduce deficits going forward. Congress itself put sequestration & its potential defense cuts on the table in order to force themselves to act. Rather than doing so & being responsible those Republicans have chosen to stall, blaming the administration & its supporters for this impasse in hopes that Romney wins. This political posturing could be fixed by our Republicans in Congress doing what they were elected to do rather than continuing the inflexible, partisan rhetoric & inaction that has so plagued our great nation & its citizens these past years. The cuts that sequestration could bring to our defense budget, while they would bring about some job loss, would not significantly reduce our military strength (by far the most powerful in the world). Fear mongering & blaming individual members of the minority party for not caving in to disastrous and further deficit-inducing Republican budgetary notions is typical of this no-longer-Grand Old Party that has lost its way on so many fronts lately. Connolly has done a fine job, constrained as he is by the Republican inflexibility and strangle-hold on substantive progress. I am not affiliated with any campaign, am an Independent voter and constituent of the 11th District, & am tired of the depths to which so many Republican incumbents & wannabes are going to obfuscate the real issues in this election cycle.

"The senior GOP members plotted to bring Congress to a standstill regardless how much it would hurt the American Economy by pledging to obstruct and block President Obama on all legislation.

These Republican members of Congress were not simply airing their complaints regarding the other party's political platform for four long hours. No, these Republican Congressional Policymakers, who were elected to do 'the People's work' were literally plotting to sabotage, undermine and destroy the U.S. Economy. " -keepemhonest

I have always found Gerry Connolly to be a moderate just as his predecesor Tom Davis was. I believe that if the Republicans would stop trying to defeat Obama and actually did what is right for the country, we would see more getting done. I don't care if you are a Republican or Democrat, you have to work together to get things done. And I vote according to the way you represent me, not the party.

Just how many more trillion dollars of debt do you think would be good for this country, 20, 25, 30? ...and just how high do you want the real unemployment rate to be, 20%?

Dave,

Your comment was deleted because it violates our comment policy; specifically, it uses profanity.

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If you have any questions please contact me at erica.hendry at patch.com

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Erica

OK Navid...I submit to you that the economy is ALREADY "in the tank," just what would have to get worse for YOU to agree that the economy is "in the tank"? The democrats are not "hoping" that the economy will worsen, they just don't know what to do to fix it. It's all about policy, not "hoping" for one thing or anotherd. It takes more than "hope"...and Navid, can you explain why ANYONE would want another four years of what we've seen over the past 3.5 years. Even Obama said that if things didn't get better, it would "...be a one term proposition." Most of us have had quite enough after his one term and would like to see him keep his word on that one. It's now time for A CHANGE...we already tried the "hope and change" bit and that just didn't work. Go see "2016, Obama's America."

When an economy is caught in a liquidity trap, as we have been since 2007-08, fiscal austerity is insanity.

Consumer demand must be increased. Austerity will not do that.

Japan made the same mistake in 1990 and their economy still has not recovered. 40 year olds are still living with their parents in apartments of 900 square feet.

Liquidate the too big to fail zombie banks; build lots of roads and bridges (especially the 4 across the Potomac shown on the 1965 COG plan but never built), renovate the 50 FCPS schools on its capital improvements list (and on similar lists in every other locality in the country), hire back the teachers, so the average class size gets back down to the 22 kids where it belongs. Hire back the firefighters and police officers, too.

Get rid of the Bush tax cuts, the FICA cap and lower FICA rates, permanently.

Maybe then we will see strong job growth and our economy will get moving again.

"Necessary reductions in spending need to be shared proportionately by all citizens and all sectors of the economy, and should not be focused primarily on a particular segment of the workforce in the 11th District. Fair is fair, and this is not!! "

This is a quote from Terry Wear in his letter. It is also the plea of the “mad as hell” voting citizen users of the Dulles Toll Road whose reductions in spending will be mandated by the exorbitant tolls which START escalating in Jan. '13, just 4 MONTHS from now and raid their pockets for the next 40 YEARS!!!

Maybe Terry can work with Governor McDonnell to get a fair State share of funding for the state income engine, the Dulles Corridor Silver Line Metro? And I'm not talking a measly $150 million out of a $6 BILLION project… OR you could get Gov. McDonnell to retake the toll way from MWAA to control tolls (taxes) on Virginia citizens AND issue low interest state bonds AND provide a fair share of the total funding?

Gosh, then YOU would be THE candidate to support! What do you think, Terry? Can you make that happen? DTR users hate “unfair” too.

I agree with many of the above writers that moderation and compromise is needed, as fast. There is plenty of blame to go around, but it is useless to place blame.

Congressional Republicans demanded spending cuts when Obama wanted to increase the country's borrowing authority. They agreed on $900 billion in spending cuts and the creation of the Joint Deficit Reduction Committee. The super committee’s work failed to reach consensus to cut the deficit more, so the automatic sequestration across-the-board spending cuts are now set to start in January, per the Gramm-Rudman law (which essentially says that if spending exceeds certain deficit targets, then sequestration would go into effect). Plenty of law makers on BOTH side of the aisle supported the Budget Control Act of 2011, including heavy hitting leaders like McCain, McConnell and Ryan, and then Obama signed it into law.

But that’s all moot now. Everyone on both sides was bull-headed, a lot of people on both sides supported the idea, and now that it is a reality that is about to come true, panic has set in. Now everyone on both sides of the aisle says sequestration is bad and will hurt the economy.

It’s great that we chat here on this blog, but I hope we are all also chatting with our representatives and telling them to get off their duffs, put country over party, and do something about it before January gets here. Like Clint Eastwood said last night: Our representatives work for us (not the other way around).

WELL SAID, BARBARA!

Let's us all join in with the muslim prayer at the democrat convention, ok? Afterall, as BO says, this is no longer a Christian nation. :(

Well, “Freedom,” your words certainly don’t sound like your name. I hope you use your words to give your representatives suggestions on how to avoid sequestration.

the stix: I was "not in the face" of Terry Wear." I was communicating that NO ONE in office NOW has come up with a solution for the DTR debacle; if fairness is his credo, the DTR users are "all ears." This could really help his election. Our current reps need to know how enraged local citizens are at the "unfairness" of the current plan in addition to the palpable damage it will cause to our community.

Are you on the payroll of one of the Silver Line profiteers, stix??? Anyone with a dictionary knows a “hearing” is a public meeting where the public has an opportunity “to be heard.” The MWAA magic show scheduled for Sept. 12 is a PR show and tell. Fancy photos and exhibits devoid of financial information that would truly educate the public of the horrendous effects of the DTR tolls funding 54% of the Silver Line totaling $6 BILLION for a 40 YEAR period of wildly escalating tolls does not define a “public hearing.”

Change it up, brother. RCA wants a true hearing where our county supervisors that approved MWAA’s deal AND MWAA are available for HEARING the concerns of a captive, tiny funding demographic of THEIR constituents. Now that’s what we call a hearing. We want the press there and as many citizens of the affected community as possible to have the opportunity to air their questions and concerns.

To the stix continued:
And don’t even think about cracking on Terry Maynard. He and members of the RCA’s Reston 2020 are the only persons in this Metro area who have bothered to investigate and analyze the folly of the present Silver Line financing plan. To ridicule him is to show your own ignorance OR fear of the truth getting out to the national media. Already journalists and bond publications from all over the country are contacting him for details he has amassed.

I commented on this forum on sequestration when I read Terry Wear's fairness plea. We at Reston 2020 do not seek war with anyone. Just as Barbara Glakas stated above, we all have to learn to work together for the betterment of the collective good. To do this, all sides need access to the truth & to be represented effectively in long ranging decisions.

If something is terrible for my neighbor or my neighboring community, it is also terrible for me. We are looking for win/wins; not win/screw (the DTR users.)

We can do better. We just need a chance for dialogue with the power brokers; not just lip service. Sec. La Hood's "magic" was solely to shift costs from the project to the county. That was no help whatsoever. MWAA wants to use Virginia's paltry contribution of $150 M to buy down tolls in the first years (purely a PR move) vs. buying down the total cost which would reduce the interest due on the debt total, a much better use of the funds.

Fairness & real Hearings: too much to ask???

Nice try Tammi to talk over my simple question (with three posts no less), what has Connolly or you done about the sequestration issue, or the MWAA DTR toll issue other the RCA calling the hearings a "sham" and your calling the MWAA “ethically challenged” (all petty imo).

The answer to my first question is ‘nothing’ except in your case to agree with Barbara G’s plea for 'moderation and compromise'. No one can argue with moderation and compromise, but wouldn’t one reasonably expect Connolly as an ELECTED congressman in a region where sequestration can potentially be devastating, would be actively engaged every hour of every day? Well we are nearing the '11th hour' and he is not, but rather has chosen to follow his Party leadership in silence and running the clock out. The path to moderation and comprimise, I think not.

May I suggest that elected Connolly is your problem, not unelected Ware!

As to the second question, as I said in an earlier reply to Colin Mills in another thread, the MWAA DTR toll plan is horrendous and the RCA writing nice reports and going to meetings he talked about is fine. However, establishing or being a member of a like-minded coalition to speak one message with one voice representing more than RCA’s constituency itself would be better. Where is the RA, ARCH, RTC and even Tysons on the matter of DTR tolls? I can only assume coalition building is not on RCA’s agenda, or you have been turned down in your attempt.. which is it?

Did anyone see "State of the Union" on CNN yesterday?
A clip from an interview by Jessical Yellin was shown. Obama was asked aout bipartisanship and cooperation with Congress. His answer was incredible. He didn't have time to reach out because he needed to spend time with his family. Seriously.

He should have thought of that before he ran for President.

David S. — Agreed. It would be nice if Speaker Boehner could exert some leadership to rein in Cantor. But, on the other hand, why is Cantor even there? Because the people elected him. So if the people don’t like the direction that he is taking the country, then the people (Cantor’s employers) should tell him so and threaten to fire him.

About compromise, I was reading an interesting article about the Civil War last night. Film maker, Ken Burns, had once interviewed the late author and historian Shelby Foote, who wrote the 3-volume classic, “The Civil War.”

Burns asked Foote, “Why did Americans kill each other in such great numbers [in the Civil War]?”

Foote replied, “Basically, it was a failure on our part to find a way not to fight that war. It was because we failed to do the thing we really have a genius for, which is compromise. Americans like to think as themselves as UNcompromising. But our true genius if for compromise. Our whole government’s founded on it. And it failed.”

These crocodile tears coming from the 11th C.D.'s top Republican, Terry Wear, are NOT consistent with his party's platform, or the Romney/Ryan views on the matter of the federal workforce. However, sequestration is consistent with the Republican litany about the need for a smaller government. This is not surprising to some of us: after numerous stump speeches, TV ads, and Republican convention blather, it is transparently clear they have little regard for the truth.

As Joe Davidson's column, The Federal Diary, in the August, 29, edition of the Washington Post, points out:

* Republican policy towards the federal workforce is to cut the workforce and cut their pay. Romney's web site says federal pay is 30 to 40 percent above the private sector and must be corrected. Ryan's House budget committee report says extend the pay freeze for federal workers to 2015 and increase their contribution to retirement benefits. This, ..."despite the fact that federal employees have already contributed $60 billion during a two year pay freeze and $15 billion in increased pension contributions..."

*As far as cuts to the workforce go, Republican platform and candidates agree that the number of men and women who work for the federal government should be reduced by 10%. Although, as Davidson states, Ryan's plan exempts national security agencies, placing a heavier burden on others.

Dry your tears Terry, you're a bad actor.

Richard Spida

Mr. Wear,

175 Republicans in Congress voted for the sequester - including Mr. Paul Ryan, your current nominee for Vice President. Shall I assume you will now turn your considerable anger against those of your own party who chose to support the sequestration plan? This would also, of course, include the Speaker of the House, Mr. John Boehner, who had nothing but praise for this plan when it was first introduced.

Your ignorance of the operating procedures of Congress has also caught my notice. It is fundamentally irresponsible to suggest that a member of the minority party in the House of Representatives has the power to accomplish anything whatsoever on any topic at any time. Were Mr. Connolly a member of the Senate, he could avail himself of such tools as filibusters and anonymous holds. As a member of the House his power is severley limited. It would serve no purpose for him to "buck his party," as you request. The GOP and its Tea Party masters have already determined that no substantive proposals from Democrats will be allowed to advance. What purpose would such "leadership" serve if the GOP would cut his feet out from under him at the first possible opportunity?

The problem is that this country is no longer competent to manage its affairs. It appears that we are not alone in that - most, if not all other nations, are also mired in debt.

The problem is crazy spending and debt. How can we think that the solution is MORE crazy spending and debt? This is incompetence.

Both parties think they know what is best. But they have been in power all along, and look at the results. And yet you still think they know what is best?

The first step is to admit that these tactics of government meddling do not work. Our people are just clamoring children, buying yet another political promise, of which we have seen so many that we should know that they are meaningless. Demagogue leaders pretend to have knowledge skill and solutions, but how can you believe that, when you have seen the trail of destruction they have left behind them for decades. They are the same people who you have learned to distrust all these years, and yet you fall for it again.

You don't know or care what they did; you only care what they seem to be claiming now. And they do not keep their promises, and they flip, and they flop. When are you going to learn? All of their promises were simply to get us to approve their latest government giveaway of borrowed money. Look at the size of some of these giveaways! This system does not work - they are exhausting the future, to pay for yesterday! And they continue, and continue, and you don't learn.

A reminder to all: please keep your comments directed toward the issues, and the tone civil. Thank you.

Yes, sequestration would disproportionately affect the defense industry. It would also disproportionately affect poor people - where's the outrage there? And - last I checked - Gerry Connolly isn't on either the Budget Committee or the Appropriations Committee, so his ability to avert sequestration is pretty limited.

But the truth of the matter is that sequestration will most likely be averted while Congress kicks the can down the road - again. And we'll have to go through more of the same until Congress stops worrying about the next election and starts worrying about governing. Across the board reductions don't equal "governing."