It’s fascinating to watch our Congressmen in action as they debate the crippling $1.5 trillion dollar budget deficit this year, and how to effectively deal with it. Their plan? Harsh cuts across all government programs* which will slash a grand total of– wait for it– $61 billion from the budget.
* Except defense spending, of course. And Social Security, of course. No one cuts those budgets.
Don’t get me wrong: $61 billion is a lot of cash, and certainly a good start. But doing the math, it’s a hair over four percent of the total annual deficit. They’re going to haggle and wrangle and give long speeches and tell the voters they’re working hard to “reign in” government spending, and after a month of theatrics, even if they get the absolute maximum they’re asking for– which they almost certainly won’t– they’re going to shave off a measly four percent.
There’s something very very wrong with our budget and our government in general, and this kind of stupid “budget cutting” isn’t helping a bit.
Argh.