Let's be clear about a few things. Politics is a deceitful art. And a lot of the debate about federal spending is about positioning. Politicians (and therefore, their constituents) are either ignorant or being willingly deceitful about the actual makeup/break-down of the federal budget. Because if politicians truly understood the budget distribution, and if the people fully grasped the budget make-up, it would fundamentally change the debate in Washington. We can't have that, so politicians allow us to remain in the dark.
Let's be clear about one thing up front here. I am NEITHER Democrat or Republican. My political views are most closely aligned with libertarian views. So if I spend a lot of time being critical of Republicans, it is NOT because I am a liberal, but rather because there is so much material to criticize. I do NOT believe Republicans to be fiscally responsible, and I certainly do NOT find them to be truthful or honest or even able to analyze a budget using 6th grade mathematics. So please save your snap judgements for Fox News and the Rush Limbaugh show. I won't hear of it, and I'll spend just as much time ripping Democrats
I want to dedicate this blog to exposing bad reasoning, faulty logic and misrepresentation of the facts by politicians and pundits, and it really starts here with the following chart, which shows the breakdown of U.S. Federal spending for the 2010 Fiscal Year.
Seems a little dishonest for the Republicans to claim that they are going to significantly cut spending or fundamentally change the federal government, and not talk about Defense Department spending or the cost of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. NOTHING will change in Washington unless we have a serious discussion about entitlement spending (SPECIFICALLY Social Security, Medicare/Medicade) and the Defense budget. Heck, you can even throw the Interest on the Debt as part of the debate, but unless we're serious about cutting spending or raising taxes to balance the budget (ha! yeah, right!) then we're not going to be able to touch that part. So...are Republicans serious about cutting spending, and I mean...cutting Defense and cutting programs that seniors will not be happy to see cuts in? My bet? No. They are not. They will continue business as usual. And the upcoming 2 years should be fun...and this blog will be FULL of examples that show that neither party is really serious about this issue.
One thing that should be pointed out...at least there are separate sources of revenue for Social Security and Medicare funding. They are called payroll taxes, and even though expenditures for those programs are vastly larger than funding - we should at least be aware of those taxes. Most of which are CAPPED at a certain amount...typically now at about $100,000. So Bill Gates, Warren Buffet? Pay as much annually for payroll taxes as a guy making $100,000. And as a percentage of their income, it is miniscule. This doesn't get mentioned much in the debate over personal income taxes, and what is the "fair" rate to tax the American people at.
And HERE is the bottom line - we spend MUCH more than we take in in tax revenue. Either we have to raise taxes to meet our spending, or we need to cut spending to keep taxes where they are. Which shall we do? Well, Democrats want to raise taxes and raise spending. Republicans want to lower taxes and lower spending. But Republicans DON'T lower spending...they just cut one program and move it to another program. That's not cutting - thats re-allocating.
When asked how they plan to balance the budget, Republicans typically answer - they want to cut the Department of Education, NEA, etc. Big deal. The government spend about $750 BILLION on Department of Defense and Homeland Security in 2009. The Department of Education? $70 billion. Less than 10% of the budget. Ironically, the Department of Education budget was increased by about 70% under President Bush after his No-Child Left Behind Act was passed. Non-military discretionary spending is shown below.
No comments:
Post a Comment