All legal rights are available in a civil union which all people can have, gay or straight.

Which United States do you live in? Mine doesn't have civil unions. There are legal benefits that married people get and unmarried people don't. Homosexuals are barred from getting married. As for the term "marriage", if it's not available to everyone, it's not legal. Since the reason that so many people are opposed to using the word for a gay union is because it is a religious thing, they are ignoring the part of the Constitution that says we don't get to make laws based on a religion. Besides, you still haven't answered the question: Do you think our government should be in the business of deciding who gets to sleep with who?

They should sit down and balance the budget with fair cuts to all programs.

Including the military? What about subsidies to huge corporations?