I hear and see a lot of emotions about whats going on right now in the political world. As with every president for as far back as I remember, there are those that love and those that hate the policies of the current administration. And as with all other political rhetoric, I see a whole lot of “slight of hand” going on.
The fact is, nothing that the politicians are arguing about really has anything to do with either the deficit, or the lives of anyone they claim to represent. The simple truth is that the government has about 3 and a half trillion dollars a year to spend, and it spends about 4 and a half. If you or me did that, it wouldn’t be long at all before the banks came and took all our stuff away, and that would be that.
And I always hear people say how they’re spending our Social Security, or that this party or another is giving it all away to other countries, or immigrants or whatever. OK, so, while some of that may happen, its not so much as you might think. And really, just think about that for a minute – isn’t that kind of a good thing to do with money (at least some of it) – help people that need help?
Realistically, however, there are 3 BIG areas where the money is going:
- First, the “War on Terror” has added over 2 trillion to the debt since 2001 (That’s 2000 billion) Military Spending rose from 437 billion in 2003 to 855 billion in 2011, and is expected to reach a 886 billion this year. As a reference, that’s more than the next 10 largest expenditures combined. Don’t get me wrong – I’m a huge fan of being the guy with the biggest stick and speaking softly, so I’m not overly concerned about that amount, but still – that’s a ton of money. (It kinda puts the whole 5 billion for a stupid wall thing in perspective.)
- Tax cuts – the Bush tax cuts added 2 trillion to the debt between 2011 and 2020. The cost of that debt alone will add another 450 billion in interest annually. That’s right – 450 billion a year to pay the interest on the EXTRA debt caused by tax cuts. I LOVE tax cuts. But sooner or later the piper’s gonna need to be paid. And even worse, additional tax cuts from the Trump administration will add another 1 trillion to the deficit over the next decade.
- Finally, the third biggest chunk of money that our government is spending is for unfunded mandatory spending. Medicaid – accounts for 412 billion in FY 2019 and helps SOME people who aren’t able to help themselves with medical care. (Nope, not affordable healthcare act – we’re talking about a joint Federal-State program that pays medical expenses for some people between certain income brackets – not the homeless, not the unemployed, not people that can’t afford to pay for regular insurance because it’s too expensive and will leave them unable to pay their bills. Medicaid has some serious bugs.) Also, other welfare programs like TANF, EITC, Housing assistance, unemployment benefits, student loans, retirement and disability for former Federal employees and others adds another 656 billion to the budget annually.
So those 3 make up about 3 Trillion a year – Military, Health and Welfare, and INTEREST on debt caused by being too deep in debt. The other Trillion or so is for EVERYTHING else.
There are lots of people – bi-partisan teams – that have come up with very good ways to reduce the deficit. But Politicians are afraid to implement those plans because they know that whatever they do will be used as a way to battle for votes from some sector impacted by their actions. So instead of doing the right thing, we get the political “slight of hand” that we’ve been getting for years now, and everyone gets wrapped around the axle about which crooked, rotten politician (who, by the way, gets paid to go into a big room and argue about anything that they can which will keep getting them elected, or fly around going to functions and doing stuff to get re-elected) they think is less crooked and rotten than the other crooked rotten politician that is doing nothing for them.
Me – I just want to make enough money to pay my bills, and have a little extra to help the people I love when they need it, and have enough time and resources to help my community as well. I know I’m not unique – so isn’t that pretty much what everyone wants? So how is it, or why is it that we allow ourselves to be distracted from that and end up spending our emotional energy on the nonsense that the politicians and the media are feeding everyone? Shouldn’t the real questions be around how we are addressing the very real issues of crime, homelessness, hunger and education in this country? And I don’t mean just talking about taking away peoples’ first amendment rights or giving money away to everyone with a sad story… I mean, coming up with real plans to change things… to really try fixing things. Not socialism, because that’s not what our social and economic structure is based on. I mean plans on how to work within the boundaries of our society and resolve basic problems. Let’s use some agile processes and methods to actually PUBLICLY try new ideas on how to do things better. Pick some communities that need help, come up with some real ideas to fix things and publicize the results. If it works, do it more places. If it doesn’t stop doing it and try something else until it’s fixed.
SO many of the problems we see are because of money, and because of a lack of jobs and job skills. But think about this for a minute – 5 billion = 100,000 jobs that make 50k a year. Instead of walls and missiles, why not build towns and resorts, and welcome visitors? Why not fund schools and colleges and pay for our kids to create new jobs and new widgets that will raise the national income? How about hiring lots of people to go fix things torn up by natural disasters HERE – there’s lots of places that money can be spent on great jobs funded by tax dollars that will continue to stimulate the economy, and increase tax revenue peripherally. There are millions of smart people in this country – it seems to me that a bunch of them could come up with some great ideas to fix some real problems, rather than wasting time and energy on the smoke that the politicians have been blowing up everyone’s behinds for decades now.
Every politician has been put in office by the public. So if your personal favorite – or the other one – is there now, send them a note with your ideas on how to fix things. If you never hear from them or never hear anything like the idea, and they don’t do what you think is the right thing – then you know what to do next election. Political party should mean NOTHING. Partisan politics results in STUPIDITY. The Government was shut down this year not because of money, but because of Politics. NO ONE wins either way with this wall issue – it’s a political game that both sides are playing. Do you really – REALLY – care about 5 billion for a wall when 855 billion is going to fund the military and we’re spending 450 billion on INTEREST? Oh yeah – and remember that whatever happens now, it’s no longer 5 billion – it’s 8 billion PLUS all the millions of tax dollars that will be spent needlessly on lawsuits. (Think about it – the Russia investigation has cost the tax payers over 25 million so far, and preliminary reports are starting to say there’s nothing to be found… https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/14/politics/russia-investigation-cost/index.html)
What a crock.
That’s just my 2 cents..
There’s a lot of great information in the link below on The Balance, written by Kimberly Amadeo:
Reference – https://www.thebalance.com/current-u-s-federal-budget-deficit-3305783