THOUGHTS ON POLITICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Californians had once thought there was a possibility our June primary election results might well be a significant determining factor in selecting the U.S. Republican Party presidential candidate. But now news pundits speculate the choice is pretty well settled. The present dominating Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, still needs more primary election delegates before the Party convention, but likely will have garnered them in other states.

Today a competing major Republican presidential candidate suspended his campaign, though a couple others remain. They're not expected to create seriously disrupting divisions at the convention, but one never knows until the political party officially gathers, delegates vote, then announce their nominee. Their vice presidential selection might be interesting, considering the previous presidential election year choice.

Incumbent President Barack Obama is the uncontested Democratic Party candidate.

The Republican Party convention will be held in Tampa, Florida one week before the Democratic Party convention in Charlotte, North Carolina which begins Labor Day. Then both candidates will court us for our votes the remainder of September and the entire month of October.

We've heard a lot of alarming Republican Party extremist base-appeasing rhetoric spoken to date. I'm curious about how their candidate will mold his future words and issue positions to attract the large percentage of more moderate, but alienated voters needed to win the national election? I anticipate some rhetoric discrepancies which leaves me wondering how voters can determine what he actually believes and will do?

We'll all want to pay close attention to both political party candidates words to see exactly what they each propose to resolve our nation's problems. Then, we'll need to compare that language with what they've said before, along with what we can realistically expect either of them to actually achieve. Congressional candidate selections we make will also be most critical for any future legislation passed.

A major issue both political parties are rightfully determined to address is reducing our national deficit. The parties seem to have distinctly different ideas about how this is accomplished. I've been concerned there are some alarming proposals for budget cuts adversely affecting current and future generations. Logic would suggest reductions would be made where dollars -- hundreds of thousands, millions, billions -- could most readily be realized with the least amount of negative impact on our basic needs, health and security. I find Congressional actions and failure to act on budget items that would contribute to that goal extremely troubling.

The end of March when the issue of oil company subsidies arose our U.S. Senate Republicans, plus a few Democrats, demonstrated just how seriously they're committed to the goal of deficit reduction. Senators also revealed what interests are their real priority.

President Obama had proposed eliminating $24 billion in taxpayer subsidies to the big five oil companies, but his plan met with little support. Senators ignored the fact the oil companies profits have been very high. Also, little did it matter that these oil companies are expected to make a trillion over the next decade. Given how dedicated Republicans are to save taxpayers money, voting to eliminate these oil company subsidies seemed like it should have been automatic.

The reality: only two Republicans -- Maine Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe -- thought these oil subsidies were a good place to initiate deficit reduction. All other Republican Senators didn't want to save our taxpayer dollars, including four Democrats -- Mark Begich of Alaska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and James Webb of Virginia.

To repeat, we know where those Republican Senators priorities are and how sincere they are about national deficit reduction in ways to least impact the ordinary American. This is only one example of an area where taxpayer dollars could be saved. Americans across this nation should be outraged.

Listen to the words, review past actions plus current acts in these months leading to the November 2012 election.