Lawmakers need to listen to voters

Bob Owen, Henderson

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 | 2:02 a.m.

As reported Thursday, the House of Representatives in Washington is conducting “business as usual.” Even though, as lawmakers will acknowledge, the American people have grown tired of the more than 10-year war in Afghanistan, they voted to continue combat operations, with an overwhelming 303-113 vote. The vote to continue the war was during the debate over the $642 billion defense budget.

So here in America, taxpayers, who obviously want this unwinnable war to end, get stuck with a enormous defense budget, of which a large portion will be used for the war. This also comes as programs in this country, such as Social Security and Medicare, are on the brink of collapse. Obviously, our elected representatives think they’re smarter than those of us who put them in office. If they won’t listen to us, then we must let them know that we are the people of this country and vote them out!