Bryant, Charlie.

If the subject were small town newspapers instead of rural post offices, would you want a little hope/help, or would you cut your own position?

I am not being mean to you, but I usually find that things are different when I put on the other fella's shoes.

Agreed, we can live without Saturday mail delivery, but those dinky little rural post offices serve as so much more than mail processing centers that their demise would have a profound effect on their communities.

If we're addressing wasteful government spending, let's talk about the House voting to INCREASE defense spending, against the objection of Leon Panetta, the Secretary of Defense. The "No earmarks!" crowd padded the budget with their districts' defense programs, even though the DoD has stated in its budget that those programs are no longer needed.

How to pay for these additional expenditures in these fiscally constrained times? Take the money from Meals on Wheels, school lunches for poor children, and medical services for the poor elderly.

This budget is dead on arrival in the Senate and the House knew it, so this idiotic posturing in lieu of actual progress continues to be the norm in Washington.

I am old enough to remember when we called our senators "statesmen." I am old enough to remember when debates on the House floor were impassioned yet respectful and the results were policies and laws that gave both sides some of what they wanted and the country moved on.

Now, we have total gridlock, adamant ideology and chest-thumping self-righteousness. Now, "moderate" is used as a pejorative and "compromise" will get you run out of town on the rails.

There's a term for these political extremists: Wingnuts. Until they are once again marginalized, our country will be held hostage to them.

All, Charlie.

I agree with most of what katieog said.

I remember when politicians had positions and platforms but could still compromise with the other guys to form workable solutions.

katieog - well done by using the term "wingnut" with attributing a side. There are plenty to go around.

Charlie, if my small town newspaper could not make it on it's own, I would not support any government assistance to prolong it's existence. And "putting on the other fella's shoes" is not going to resolve our current fiscal dilemma. Everyone's ox is going to have to be gored to pull ourselves out of this mess.

Katieog's example of the defense budget is an appropriate one. Defense contracts are structured so that virtually every state has at least one. That's why Congress wanted two different engines for the F-22 - so Lockheed -Martin in Marietta would have something to do. Even though the Air Force and the Secretary of Defense said it was a bad idea. Our fiscally conservative Senators both voted for that provision.

Self-interest above all.

Bryant, Charlie.

I understand and agree - still cannot blame the USPS for defending it's own jobs. I will not even discuss the spineless members of Congress.

2 engines for F-22 is more conplex than that, but I agree that if USAF and SECDEF said no, then the answer should be "NO!"