When Will Senate Democrats Start Doing Their Job?

National unemployment is at 9.1%, the United States is $14.7 trillion in debt, and the Senate Democrats continue to be a roadblock in the recovery and solvency of America. It has been 891 days since the Senate passed a budget, 891 days since the Democratic majority put people above politics and did the job their constituents sent them to Washington to do. It is no longer acceptable for the politicians to hide behind rhetoric and speeches, with tens of millions out of work, and even more no longer looking for a job, the upper chamber no longer has the luxury to waste our time, on our dime. Times of adversity and recession call for bold leadership, not passive denial of responsibility. Senate Democrats need to take a page out of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's book. Chairman Ryan dissected the entire federal budget, going line by line proposing a plan that slashes wasteful spending, cuts duplicate programs, and puts the nation back on a path to prosperity. He has endured being demonized by the media and Democratic ideologues for standing up for fiscal policy that doesn't kick the proverbial can down the road. Since his original release of the “Roadmap for America's Future” in 2008, the chairman has irreversibly changed the conversation into terms that give lawmakers the ability to make a difference in solidifying our next generation's capacity for opportunity. The debate has changed from talking about “potentially billions of dollars in cuts” to “how many trillion dollars,” this is a step forward that has come as a direct result of Paul Ryan's vision. Ryan isn't doing his job just to get reelected, he's doing his job because the nation is facing problems that require real solutions and difficult decisions. The Senate Democrats are putting their own political futures above the economic future of the country as a whole. Smoke and mirrors budgetary tactics that do nothing to improve our longterm fiscal outlook are not a replacement for necessary entitlement reform and far-reaching changes to the tax code. Loopholes that allow for companies such as General Electric to not pay federal taxes must be closed, but on the same token, the marginal personal income tax burden on everyday Americans must be relieved as well. Now is not the time to hinder entrepreneurs' ability to reinvest in their organizations, and not the time to make middle class Americans pay an even greater amount of their paychecks to the government. As families tighten their belts to stretch wages as much as possible, the government must take the same approach in addressing federal spending levels. Scare tactics and class warfare, the favorite tools of the left, are not the answer to our financial woes, meaningful differences cannot be made with empty rhetoric. The House of Representatives has done its job, the Republicans in the Senate have agreed to the House-passed budget, and now it is up to Senate Democrats to do the same. There will be popular programs that take deep cuts in funding and there will be unions and special interests that are upset their pockets didn't get greased. But the job of a United States Senator is not to recklessly spend the hard earned dollars of their constituents, it is to empower this generation and the next to achieve a level of success and opportunity that moves beyond the previous generation. It has been 891 days since the Senate has passed a budget, it's time for them to start doing their job because it's time for America to take back its rightful place at the pinnacle of the free world.