Oh, The Budget

Lately all we have heard is how social programs and workers rights have destroyed our economy and if we wish to reign our spending in, we must take control of these lawless programs. What you have actually heard is a well choreographed dance about the Republican agenda which in no way would balance the budget.

For starters, defense, social security and medicare account for about 80-85% of the country's total budget. So you could cut every single social program out of the budget and it wouldn't even make a dent. And the assault on Planned Parenthood is such a lie. There is no way the federal funds Planned Parenthood receives could be used for abortions because the Republicans got laws introduced prohibiting that exact thing from happening.

Other social programs they don't mention directly are food stamps, welfare and Pell grants for college students. I know, typically the best way to improve a society is to keep them hungry, poor and dumb, but maybe this once we could flip the script. What Washington doesn't want to admit is that by cutting food stamps they screw over at least 1/3 of military families who need food stamps to get by each month. And this is a country that supposedly loves its military.

The line of attack that is happening to unions is also a disgrace. To say that collective bargaining is destroying states is akin to saying that if every citizens home was paid off it would make them less happy. Don't get me wrong, unions are not innocent (they've pulled some doozies of their own), but organizations that were created because of the horrific working conditions employees found themselves in is not a bad thing. Unions are pretty much the last line of defense protecting most normal Americans from the corporate monsters. If unions are undone then you can pretty much erase the "pursuit of happiness" from the vernacular of America.

What no one is saying is "aren't we still paying for two wars?" Or perhaps, "Do you think the $700 billion bailouts affected the economy?" Look at it this way, which would have done more to stimulate the economy: bailing out the failed banks or using the $700 billion to PAY OFF the "bad" mortgages, thus covering the banks suspected losses PLUS putting money back into the pocket of the homeowner? If we were bound and determined to bail something out, we should have gone the right direction.

The only way to balance this monster is to give up on our attempts to own the oil of Iraq and poppy fields of Afghanistan. We are also going to have to find a way to streamline social security and medicare. Now I know both programs are beholden to seniors and I am glad they are in place, however, if we had had a better health care apparatus in place, would we even need medicare? Imagine - a health care bill that actually let us remove medicare from the budget. It wouldn't be free, but I dare say it could be set up to run more efficiently. As for social security, well, I'm perplexed. We don't want the funds managed by the wall street brigade cause it may well just disappear. Social security may well just be that lone dinosaur that we have to leave alone.

Here's some food for thought. If you hammer away social programs, let the public become ready for higher crime rates, starvation and the continued decline of our educational standing in the world.