Today it was announced that the Democrats and the Republicans sorta / kinda / almost worked together to continue unemployment extensions for those who can't find work in this god-awful economy and at the same time keep the Bush-era tax cuts from expiring on the poor, the middle class and the incredibly rich members of society.
Problems? You bet:
1. This "I'll trade you your tax cuts for wealthy captains of industry for extending unemployment benefits" isn't really a compromise. It is more of a temporary cease fire between two sides of a government that can't manage to think of anything but their own constant reelections anymore.
2. The government isn't taking money from somewhere else to pay for the tax cuts for the wealthy, for the continued unemployment or the tax cuts for folks like you and me. The Republicans continue to believe in Reagan-era trickle down economics, which never trickle any where but to the bank accounts of the wealthy. The Democrats don't know how to trade: 13 months of unemployment extensions in exchange for 2 years of tax cuts.
3. And this is the very sad part: When it comes to funding unemployment, reducing the tax burden for the middle class, and contributing to education and health for its own citizens, our elected officials fight and scream about funding. However, we seem to invade, bomb, rebuild and fund other countries with a blank check.
Originally formed to "establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity," our federal government has turned into a huge, over-bloated bureaucracy (to see just how bloated, check out A-Z Index of U.S. Government Agencies http://www.usa.gov/Agencies/Federal/All_Agencies/index.shtml).
Surely, it cannot take $3.8 trillion to run this country--not when we also have functioning state, county & local governments. Unfortunately, "our" elected representatives, who have to be rather wealthy in order to run for office, have lost touch with their constituents. They have forgotten how important an extra $500, $800 or $2000 can be when we push the e-file button on our tax returns.
The time has come for some serious budgeting. Not just the "guidelines" that our representatives pass in our names--but some really serious emergency budgeting.
Let's face it, most of our elected members of congress are men. My husband won't pay the bills. It makes him sick. I know several other women who handle the bills and the budgets because their husbands can't take it, either. No wonder our country is in such bad financial shape. These guys just can't pay the bills--it makes them ill.
The government needs women who run their family budgets, pay the bills, prioritize and save for purchases, and suffer the tension headaches on behalf of their families to come in and fix things.
And that is what we should be--the great American family. In times of economic crisis, we don't stop caring for Granny in order to rebuild the Jones' house. We might want to--but we just can't. Nor do families pay for the luxury of a pedicure or a housekeeper when they are straining their purse strings to put food on the table.
The government needs some true Millennium Moms to step in. Women who know what is needed to keep a family of four or five people afloat at a time when annual raises are stuck at 2%--we are the ones with the common sense to reduce and reorganize the government into a lean, mean finance machine. They need some Moms who know what's necessary to a family and what's not ("No, you cannot have a new space shuttle! What do you think? That money grows on trees?").
If you go through the A-Z Index of U.S. Government Agencies, there are tens of agencies hiding in departments that could just be cut right off the bat. Boom. No one will ever know except the bureaucrats who work there--and they can enjoy unemployment benefits while they look for a new job ("You think maintaining a base in the Arctic Circle is more important than helping 5,000 unemployed, uninsured accountants and their families? I don't think so. You can do that when you've put some money in the bank").
For instance, the Administration for Children and Families handles topics that are duplicated at the state level: child abuse, child care, child support, the "Healthy Marriage Initiative", etc. Cut, cut, cut. The Department of Education only causes everyone headaches. It demands expensive testing and more testing and higher standards--but where's the funding. I do understand that it spends more at the college level. So perhaps it should become the Department of Higher Education, and remove the primary and secondary education divisions. Here in Illinois, our public school education is pretty much paid for by commercial and homeowner property taxes. The feds and states don't do much for us.
Now, look at how much I've already saved the US! And this is just one mom.
The budget is up there for everyone to view. You can download/view it in sections at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy11/index.html. Make it a resolution this coming New Year to sift through the parts of it. See if there is something that you think can be axed--that just isn't in the US family budget anymore. Look for duplicates. We don't duplicate work efforts in our homes or small businesses--so why should the federal government duplicate what the states do?
When you do find something, post it as a comment here--and be sure to e-mail it to your rep in congress and the senate. Whether you are a republican or democrat, show them where you think the family should be putting its money.
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