By Tanja Clendinen, JMI Communications Director
Okay, I am now officially disgusted with Washington politics and politicians, on both sides of the aisle! After weeks of wrangling, posturing, and media coverage, our great leaders have agreed to “cut” spending, somehow, some way, sometime in the next 10 years. Oh, and by the way, the agreed-upon, amorphous spending CUTS are actually just slowdowns in the GROWTH of spending.Our country is living beyond its means—we’re spending more than we make—slowing down how fast we’re overspending does not fix the problem. No matter what the speed, if we continue spending more than we make, we are going to owe even more–which means we get to do this all over again. Wow, this has been a really effective process!The debt ceiling agreement is a farce—it does very little to address the real source of the problem: overgrown, overreaching, inefficient, redundant, and politically-motivated government expenditures and programs. So what about raising taxes to satiate this beast? The responsible first step is to trim, streamline, and optimize current spending for funding of only essential, appropriate government programs–then determine if additional revenue is truly needed.So where does this leave us, average Americans working our jobs, raising our families, and pursuing our dreams? Wishing Dave Ramsey’s “Total Money Makeover” and “The Golden Rule” were required reading for all elected officials? Putting our faith in the “working the details out later” approach to the debt ceiling?Because politicians always do what they say, are more likely to make real cuts closer to the elections, and those that voted on this debt deal will still be around in 10 years to be held accountable? But, hey, in the words of columnist Glenn Garvin, “A flock of political fairies could sprinkle pixie dust over Washington, causing pigs to fly and congressmen to make hard economic choices.”
2011
