Peggy and JoAnn

Meet Peggy and JoAnn, two of the many reasons America is broke.

First, meet Peggy Joseph (I write about Peggy and her message in "What The (Bleep) Just Happened?). Five days before the 2008 election, Peggy attended an Obama campaign rally in Sarasota, Florida. Asked by an interviewer what she saw in Obama that drew her to vote for him, she replied, "I never thought this day would happen. I won't have to worry about putting gas in my car; I won't have to worry about paying my mortgage. You know, if I help him, he's gonna help me."

There it is. Not only did Peggy tell us what she and countless other Obama voters saw in him---a non-stop big government goodie giveaway---but she unwittingly revealed the leftists' grand strategy of moving America away from individual self-reliance and toward---in Obama's smooth way with words to cover up the socialism---"collective salvation." Peggy was down with that; she just wanted to be on board, hand extended, palm up.

Now meet JoAnn Watson, Detroit City Councilwoman. JoAnn believes that since Detroit gave Obama 75% of the vote, he needs to bail out the city.

Here she is:

"Our people in an overwhelming way supported the re-election of this president and there ought to be a quid pro quo and you ought to exercise leadership on that," said Watson. "Of course, not just that, but why not?"

She continued, "After the election of Jimmy Carter, the honorable Coleman Alexander Young, he went to Washington, D.C. and came home with some bacon. That's what you do." (Hear her here: http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/20264712/detroit-councilwoman-to-obama-we-supported-you-now-support-us )

Of course, these are the government "gifts" and attitude toward government "gifts" to which Mitt Romney referred several weeks ago and for which he got pounded. He was, of course, correct. Recall that the nearly $1 trillion "stimulus" Obama signed in early 2009 was almost entirely made up of payoffs and payouts to Democrat constituencies: unions, government employees and contractors, etc. So it's no surprise that Ms. Watson would expect more of same. Everybody wants theirs.

The problem is there is no more money to give to everyone who expects "theirs." We can continue to print money or we can continue to spend like crazy and look the other way or we can start to retrench now to try to avoid total catastrophe. Regardless of which path we choose, the pain will be real. The only question is: how much pain and for how long?

Republicans like Paul Ryan have been having this honest conversation with the American people, and he's been slammed by the Left and the media for it. But he is correct and responsible.

If only there were some responsible people on the Democrat side to tell Peggy and JoAnn---and everybody else with their hand out---that the gravy train is over, the crisis is here, and to detail a way to fix it.

In the meantime, hands continue to go out, palms extended. And the country sinks deeper and deeper into the darkness of debt.