Today’s political gimmicks won’t be forgotten in 2012

John C. Lovelace, St. George, Utah

Saturday, April 16, 2011 | 2:01 a.m.

I hope everyone was watching closely last week when Republicans supposedly went into negotiations with Democrats over the 2011 budget.

Democrats swore that Republicans were declaring war on women, that 6 million seniors would starve, that Republicans were robbing poor children, etc.

Meanwhile, Republicans swore they got a reduction of $38.5 billion in the budget.

Now that the smoke has cleared — no government shutdown — we see that Democrats’ raving was nothing but outlandish hyperbole. We also see that the Republican claim of a $38.5 billion reduction in spending was a lie. It amounted to a reduction of less than $400 million in spending for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. The rest of the claimed savings appear to be gimmicks and smoke and mirrors.

I hope everyone paid attention because in the next few months, things will get really hot with the raise in the debt ceiling coming up and the 2012 budget fight beginning.

It is time to keep a close eye on the politicians and think about 2012 and turning the whole bunch out of office.