Playing the Lyre of Budget Madness as the Empire Burns

[SARTRE]

By Washington DC standards the just concluded budget agreement for funding the federal government through September, is a big win for Republicans. Emily Miller in Human Events describes, "The final agreement will be for $38.5 billion in cuts from current spending over the remaining six months of the current fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30. The spending cuts, although historic in size, account for only 2.5% of this year's projected budget deficit of $1.6 trillion." Here lies the obscenity of the central government; namely, that a mere drop in the bucket reduction in a historic deficit is lauded as the great achievement of compromised negotiations.

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[acptulsa]

Any reduction in the bottom line would be historic. I know this chart isn't adjusted for inflation. But where are the little sawteeth that indicate that they spend less in any given year than they did the year before?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/US_Federal_Outlay_and_GDP_linear_graph.png

I don't know if it's appropriate to celebrate when we're still going to hit the iceberg. But, I guess it's nice when you're in the lifeboat (or the water) to know that the helmsman did finally spin the wheel the right direction. I guess.

[SARTRE]

acptulsa,

Wholesale abolishment of entire departments are needed. Such remote actions will not happen until the money bust. But when people feel that success is defined in making small reductions, they tend to go back to sleep. It's too late the right the ship of state. Only a default on the debt can start the shipbuilding effort for starting over.

SARTRE

[KCIndy]

Wholesale abolishment of entire departments are needed. Such remote actions will not happen until the money bust.
SARTRE


Very, very true.

The Department of Education could (and probably should) be the first to go. Yet whomever suggests such a thing is scathingly criticized.

I wonder how many of these same critics even realize that the Department of Education was created only a little more than thirty years ago by the Carter administration. For that matter, how do they explain how the country managed to survive and educate kids just fine for the 200+ years prior to the creation of this costly and useless government behemoth?

I'm afraid we're going to have to hit rock bottom before we can begin the long, hard climb back up again.... :(

[acptulsa]

Well, rock bottom is nigh, so we don't have long to wait. The big question is, will people fix it or listen to an FDR?