"And this is why the can always gets kicked down the street. Solving our budget dilemma is like solving a Rubik's cube with mittens on and blindfolded. What is going to happen on Friday? Who knows. Does it matter? Not really."
Here we go again. The country with a sky-high debt is going to try and get all the cats heading in the right direction so we can pass a budget - sort of. This all needs to be done by COB on Friday, or else. Or else what? Another government "shut down". This is where we furlough all the "non-essential" government workers (and there are legions of them). Wait! What, where, how, when? Can we do some simple budgeting in this country? Us families need to do that every month. No, we can't. Because we have made the process into something like a mucking fess.
I guess the new Speaker is going to try a "laddered approach" to a CR this time around. How is that going to be received? Poorly, by some. The Freedom Caucus already hates it, as it keeps some of our sky-high spending intact. Many of the Democrats hate it because - well, just because. What in the world will it do then? It will kick the can down the street, until January and February. Big flipping deal. When we get to January, then what? Grab the can and get ready to kick it again.
Trying to come up with a cohesive budget is almost laughable these days. First off, we have a president who will not sign a budget unless it spends money like monopoly money. Zero accountability. And then, we have the Democrats. The want more, as much as the Freedom Caucus of the Republicans want less.
The amount of money we bicker about every year is the discretionary part of the budget. And that is only 30%, with Defense taking up half of that 30%. Defense becomes almost sacrosanct, so everyone ends up fighting over the leftovers - the remaining non-defense, which is about 15%.
The 600-pound gorilla in the budget is Social Security and Medicare which take up a big part of the 70% of the budget which is untouchable. Until we make that "untouchable", touchable, our national debt will continue to grow like a weed.
Now we come to the sticky wickets which have not yet been addressed. We need about $100B more (out of budget costs) to fund Ukraine, Israel and to pump up Taiwan. Oh, and some more money for Border Security. Added on to that (which has not been discussed much), is a boatload of dollars to re-stock our ammo cupboard. It will take years and zillions of dollars to put back what we have used in Ukraine alone.
Final point. With the national debt expected to reach somewhere between 45 and 50 trillion dollars by 2030, it seems we are driving 100mph towards a brick wall. Already the cost of servicing our 33 trillion-dollar debt is a trillion dollars a year. Just think of how much a 50 trillion-dollar debt will cost to service.
And this is why the can always gets kicked down the street. Solving our budget dilemma is like solving a Rubik's cube with mittens on and blindfolded. What is going to happen on Friday? Who knows. Does it matter? Not really.
The problem is, nobody is willing to look at actual SOLUTIONS, which as it turns out are relatively simple. Turn Medicaid into a fixed funding program in the states, without Federal mandates. Turn Medicare into an optional premium support system, again without federal mandates (which increase our health care costs by double, according to Mayo). Phase out Social Security in favor of mandatory [Roth-style] IRAs and that will prevent it from going broke AND start to pay down the National debt, while giving everybody all they were promised and much more! Then, pass the FAIR tax, saving the economy about $400B in compliance costs every year, and unleashing a wealth of additional benefits. All easy, simple, well-known and certainly effective. Is Congress just that stupid, or is it something else?
ReplyDeleteLove it! I am voting for you Jerry!
DeleteHow in the world can we get Congress to do what is simple and sensible? I've tried writing my "Congressman" but she's a Democrat, so...
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