A compromise would be perfect

And now here we are again with the sequestration or budget cuts of the federal government. No matter how much this will hurt the recovery the Repubs will not countenance a balanced approach. Make no mistake; this is going to be hard on the state of Washington because of our large defense industry and military bases. There will be layoffs and jobs lost altogether. Even the conservative curmudgeon James McCusker, The Herald's columnist, has suggested the cuts be stretched out many more years. Most economists agree that we can't simply cut our way out of this problem. They think the best approach is a balance of cuts and increased revenue. But no, the ideologues in the House will allow no vote that includes revenue increases If the left/right continuum was a circle, the ideologues on the right wouldn't be that far from the fringe on the left who think the sequestration is a great opportunity to gut the defense budget. So here we are folks, a situation nobody wants but nobody knows how to get out of headed in the right direction. Only the American people can solve this by making a choice. Do we want to continue in the same direction we've been heading since Ronald Reagan began the tax-cutting craze and let these loonies out of their cage? Or do we want to go in another direction, give the president the support he needs to try something different? This is a large complicated country that needs a certain level of government. We can't simply drown our government in a bathtub as advocated by the lunatic fringe. We will not allow ourselves to become a Third World nation that cannot take care of its elderly citizens or defend our country. Steven Bates Everett