Did you know that President Obama’s debt reduction plan was twice the size of the GOP’s plan? Did you know that President Obama’s plan cut $4 trillion in deficit reduction but was rejected because his plan included revenue as part of the solution? The President set a goal of reducing our deficit by $4 trillion in 12 years or less and his deficit reduction plan would have been phased in over time to protect and strengthen our economic recovery and the recovering labor market but it was rejected by Republican Tea Party leaders for a watered down plan that only reduces the deficit $2.3 trillion.

Unfortunately for the everyday citizen, a real deficit reduction plan was ignored by Tea Party GOP leaders because it did not protect the needy (Example of needy: Oil corporations who need subsidies) and Mitt Romney’s friends (Corporations that are not made up of people, but who are people). Do you see why it’s hard for the majority of Americans to take them seriously?

President Obama believes that we need a comprehensive, pro-growth economic strategy that invests in winning the future, lays the foundation for strong private-sector job growth and ensures that shared prosperity will keep the American dream alive for generations to come. A key component of that strategy is a commitment to fiscal responsibility and to living within our means.

President Obama laid out a comprehensive, balanced deficit reduction framework to cut spending, bring down our debt and increase confidence in our nation’s fiscal strength.

Could the President have done more? Maybe – couldn’t we all? But when you have GOP presidential candidates saying that they would reject $10 in spending cuts if it included $1 in revenue— for example, ending tax breaks and incentives for the wealthy so they pay their fair share like the rest of us—then how does one expect to get anything done?

In the good ole days, after campaign season we all shook hands, rolled up our sleeves and got to work. Sure we had our differences, but I was taught that we are all in this together and to respect my fellow Americans, but how do we work together when we have so-called leaders telling us they will not compromise because they believe that 2 percent of the wealthiest in America are more important than the rest of us?

How do we work together when there are those who will not compromise when it comes to having all citizens pay their fair share? These same leaders would cut Medicare and Social Security benefits for the majority but they won’t ever consider killing subsidies to oil corporations that are making unprecedented profits?

Fortunately, Americans know who to blame for the current financial crisis and for the increased interest rates we are surely all going to pay due to the downgrade in our country’s credit rating.

Until ideology is replaced by pragmatism the country will continue to suffer. The Tea Party litmus test has made both Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, Jr. unrecognizable from the true leaders they could be if they had enough integrity to not pander to a loud Tea Party minority.