They think it's OK to have armed guards 24/7, while passing laws to take away everyone else's ability to defend themselves. Almost all of them send their kids to private schools. They exclude themselves from insider trading restrictions. They even get paid when the government shuts down.

Everything they do makes it obvious that their elite political class is better than everyone else and above the law.

I don't think you can win a Senate seat without being hugely corrupt. Certainly not the Presidency.

There might be a few honest people in Congress, though.

They have a deal with Worker's Comp to get in their priority queue. And yes it sucks. Federal bureaucrats have also been caught queue-jumping. Just like in all socialist schemes, some people are inevitably more equal than others.

Forget your ideological fantasies and stick to the facts. Name a country with universal health care where you can't get what you want by paying for medical services yourself.

Canada. It is illegal in Canada to charge for medical services that are otherwise covered by the public health system.

And yes I personally know people who have chosen to travel to the US to get surgery and diagnostics rather than sit on multi-year waiting lists for them.

Our system is good for most people, but the no-pay rule means you can get screwed for anything that isn't immediately life threatening, and many things (including MRIs) are rationed by waiting list.

Lower fiscal deficits ... that's a joke. I voted for the Conservatives but, as usual, they have failed spectacularly at containing the deficit. I guess you could give them credit for wanting to contain it, unlike the other parties, but actual execution ... man I wish Paul Martin was still finance minister.

False convictions, especially of poor defendents, is an enormous problem, and people should oppose the death penalty for that reason alone.

I'm as pro-vengeance as the next guy, but I'd like the punishment to go to the right person, especially if it's something you can't take back.

I'd vote for that.

After his entire administration and much of the so-called free press claimed weapons of mass destruction and broadly suggested that Iraq was involved in 9/11.

Ie. not exactly informed approval.

I have to do that too if I can't get exit row. They usually give up after a few tries.

A lot extra. Westjet charges $45.00 for exit row. Apparently they figured out that tall people will pay a fair bit not to be crippled after a flight.

Deficits tend to decrease when a Democtrat is president and to shoot up as soon as a Republican becomes President.

I think the current president has probably wrecked that trend.

The US federal budget in 2000 was $1.8 trillion. The US federal spend (I'd call it a budget, but you haven't had one of those in what, like 4 years?) in 2011 was $3.8 trillion.

Total government spending in 2013 is about 40% of GDP. That's higher than it has ever been outside of a couple of years during WWII.

It's a spending problem, period.

.. like 40 or so. It's really not a big number.

Government at all levels in the US spends over 40% of GDP. It was around 30% in 1960. The only time it was ever higher than now was for a couple of years during WWII.

Taxes in some cases may be marginally lower because much of that spending is paid by increased debt, but the welfare state is absolutely bigger than it has ever been.

That's true, but mostly because 48% of the population have zero net wealth. They'd rather by ipads on credit than save money. I have more net wealth than millions of Americans combined, but that's not saying a lot.

Not that wealth accumulation isn't a problem, but let's keep things in perspective.