MP900341775The Senate has gone nearly 1,360 days without passing a budget. Our debt ceiling is looming, with creditors again threatening to downgrade our rating. The president has said that if there is a government shutdown, then veterans and active duty troops could see a delay in paychecks (why is that he never threatens to hold the EPA or TSA’s paychecks?). This week, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force and the Secretary of the Air Force promised that if sequestration went through in March then the Air Force could see a 20% reduction in flying hours — which could prove devastating to our military readiness — and while the Secretary of Defense was very careful to say there would be no boots on the ground in Mali, he didn’t rule out using our Air Force for transport or intelligence gathering.

Our military is being used as a pawn in budget games. They leave their families for months at a time to go to regions populated by people who hate them, trusting that their families will be safe. Instead, they have their paychecks threatened and — with flying hours and maintenance budgets being cut — their lives being put at further risk, while our leaders commit us to more wars in foreign lands that still don’t want us there.

There has been a lot of talk this week about impeachment if the president pushes through further gun restrictions on the Second Amendment. But why have we waited so long? The Constitution is clear on what the guidelines are for impeachment. It shouldn’t be tied solely to a party line vote, but that is what the American public are being held hostage to, through the Senate. Between Benghazi, threatening military readiness through his failure to lead Congress and propose a serious budget, and his blatant disregard for the Second Amendment, I am frankly amazed that impeachment isn’t becoming more of a serious threat.

We find ourselves in a country divided, where the pejorative “tea-baggers” is acceptable and dissenters are accused of being racists or Obama haters. We find ourselves in a country where the Bill of Rights seems to be no longer relevant and where we are all war-weary but seem to be headed helter-skelter into any war we can find. Perhaps it seems lazy to blame the guy at the top, but in any organization, when the management is corrupt, it is reflected all the way through. This administration, from Napolitano on to Holder and Clinton, is rotten to the core. One can only assume that it’s because they are simply reflecting their leader.

It would be easy to accept the president’s pat answer that we just need to keep raising the debt ceiling. It would be easy to accept that there has to be a 20% cut in flying hours. It would also be easy to just blame the Democrats.

The truth, like everything else in life, is more heavily nuanced. We all know that there is plenty of room in the US budget to cut spending. We all know that the Air Force could be conceivably posturing in order to pressure Congress into a budget deal before sequestration goes into effect. We all know that Democrats and Republicans share much of the blame for the problems facing our country. What we need are senators and representatives who will be brave enough to face the problems, accept responsibility and provide solutions. The first and foremost solution would be an impeachment shortly after the inauguration.