We have always been taught by our teachers and parents that procrastination is a bad thing; we were taught that we should get work done as soon as we are given it. Clearly our politicians were never taught by our parents and teachers. They must have been taught by those educated elites that think it is alright to wait until that last possible minute to get work done. I mean, why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? Don’t get me wrong, I have done my fair share of waiting until the last minute to get things done. However, the things that I wait to get done the last minute are not nearly as important as the federal budget…
Last Friday, April 8th, the government almost shut down because our two political parties could not agree on a budget. At one point it was said that they were arguing over ten cents per dollar maybe less. In the closing hours of day, approximately 11 pm, the Democrats and Republicans put their differences aside and came to an agreement to cut about $38 billion off the federal budget. There were arguments about where to cut and why they should be cut. Some of the arguments involved cutting funding for Planned Parenthood, NPR, and PBS (in a little bit I will delve into what I think should be cut).
Last year, the U.S government spent a lot of money (yes, I know it is the “evil” Wikipedia that I used).I would venture to say that every year from here on out will continue to increase spending regardless who is in office. In yesterday’s USA Today, Speaker Boehner wrote an Op-Ed explaining what the next fight and the fight after that will be like for the federal budget. In the Op-Ed, Boehner explains that there will be a tax hike around $1.5 trillion and $9.1 trillion debt added to the already almost insurmountable debt within the next decade.
Some of my friends seem to be upset at the Republicans for agreeing to $38 billion in cuts. I say to them, shame on you – we should take what we can get! Like Boehner says, our next fight and the fights after that will be the real heavy hitters. Did anyone honestly want the government to shut down? If it did, all of the politicians would have been the biggest political failures in American history. Let’s just take into account that Rasmussen just released a new opinion poll on Obama’s approval rating and he now has an Approval Index rating of -20%. Without the Tea Party movement, does anyone think we would have gotten any of these cuts? Probably not and here is a short video clip that you might like.
My biggest question is: what if the government did shut down? We’re already on our way to $5 a gallon for gas. If the government did shut down, there would be some serious political back-lash. I agree that there needs to be spending cuts across the board. That does not mean just for Planned Parenthood, NPR, and PBS. I am talking about spending cuts across the entire board including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and so forth. Republicans talk about cutting spending back to the 2007 levels; why don’t we cut spending back to the 2000 level? It seems a bit radical, but it just might work and save the national economy. Unlike Governor Brown of California, I do not think this is the most divided the country has been since the Civil War; in fact, I think the country is actually coming closer together since the debate about the budget has come into light.
This past week and Friday was just typical politics as usual in Washington. It was also a fight to see who had the bigger balls – however, both parties lost and have made the general public pretty upset that it took our elected officials this long to come up with a budget. Hey Washington, grow up.
