The Federal Budget

           The U. S. Senate has not passed a budget in over three years.  How many of you think you could have kept your job if you were that incompetent?  Why do we put up with elected legislatures that don’t do their job?

        The problem is even more severe considering the debt crisis this country is facing.  We have to cut the size of government and government spending.  We have to balance the budget.  Reducing the deficit is not enough.  Just reducing the deficit is a joke.  All reducing the deficit means is that we are borrowing less every year and going bankrupt slower.

        I don’t care if you are a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Socialist, Constitutionalist, Progressive, Conservative, Liberal, Anarchists, Communist, Wig or Tory, you have to recognize this problem.  Even if you are at the extreme left, you have to realize the country cannot continue to increase the dept.  Many of the programs we each feel are important will not just be cut; they will cease to exist if we don’t address this debt. 

        Some politicians keep trying to avoid the problem.  They want to push it off on future generations.  The current excuse is to blame it on the previous administrations, or the other party.  The time for passing the buck is over.

        U.S. Representative Paul Ryan has presented a budget proposed by the U.S. House Budget Committee.  This proposed budget cuts spending, but not enough in my opinion.  It starts to reform Medicare and Medicare, but does not go far enough in my opinion. Presidents Clinton and Bush both tried to address this problem with no results. 

        The budget also addresses tax reform with reducing individual tax brackets from six to two.  It proposes cutting loopholes, but does not go far enough in my opinion.  We need a flat tax or “Fair Tax” with NO loopholes. 

        I am not happy with this budget because it does not do enough.  I have to agree that it could be an acceptable compromise for a first step in the right direction. 

        It almost makes me sick is when I hear politicians saying this budget is too extreme, and cuts too much.  I heard someone from the Progressive Caucus say they were going to propose a budget that would “Invest” our country and balance the budget in twenty years.  You have got to be kidding. 

        In business an investment is generally expected to give some return-on-investment.  The only return-on-investment for many “investments” by our government is to campaign donors, and they get some really good returns in many cases. 

Enough.  The Federal Government should not be in the business of picking who succeeds and who fails in business. 

       

When I hear something like, “balance the budget in twenty years.” it makes me sick.  Twenty years is too little, too late, and it will be changed in twenty years anyway.  Do these legislatures really think the voting public is that naive? 

Obviously, some legislatures think we are that naïve, and they can continue with the old party politics and look after special interest groups to fill their re-election coffers. 

Everyone needs to keep talking about this debt problem.  I don’t want to push this problem off on future generations.  That may be too late.