Budgets

Budgets are tricky things. God knows, I can't follow one. I've used Quicken several times to set one up, but find myself losing interest before the first month is over. Keeping track of every dime I spend is time consuming, and I really don't have all that much free time. And I don't really want to spend any of it recording my purchases and payments.

The Federal budget is in a totally different class, I know. They can't spend a dime unless it's in the budget. Sort of like my school. If it isn't in the school plan, it doesn't get spent. So that kind of a budget really is a road map to what we, as a nation, feel is important, what we want to spend our money supporting and encouraging.

Looking at the Ryan proposal vs. the Obama budget, it couldn't be clearer that Ryan and his supporters don't want to live in the same country I live in. Obama does, barely. Ryan apparently wants to live in a country with an upper class, indulged and supported with government handouts, and a peasant class, organized in workhouses and poorhouses. Let's keep those tax cuts intact, make them permanent, for those "poor" millionaires, while we take money away from feeding hungry babies and children, take away womens' health care by shutting down Planned Parenthood. And of course, let's be sure to keep giving $4 billion to the oil companies, because, after all, making $17 billion in profits in 3 months just isn't enough. And let's also be sure to cut back on funding for Medicaid, because that just helps poor people. And let's cut back on Medicare, too, because millionaires don't need it. So what f senior citizens are forced to choose medicine instead of food? They're old and will soon die, anyway. (but of course, this won't take effect until later, when I'm not up for re-election.) While we're at it, let's cut funding for public television and public radio, the arts, the unemployed, any and all regulation of anything of interest to the wealthy, oh, and also gut the health care reform that was recently passed.

Obama's plan doesn't make cuts in Medicaid, or most of the other services this country provides. It does cut funding for Defense (about time! 3 wars??), but it proposes new funding for alternative energy, education, and fully funds the parts of the health care plan that still are pending, awaiting those funds.

What it doesn't do is refuse any cuts until the Bush tax cuts are repealed. I don't believe we should be talking about any cuts at all until, and unless, tax cuts for millionaires and billion dollar giveaways to the oil companies have been completely stopped. The Constitution clearly states that one of the purposes of the government is to "provide for the general welfare" of its citizens. I don't think that the 2 or 3 per cent of the population who own nearly 80 percent of the production of it can seriously lay claim to being the focus of that "general" welfare. It's clearly the other 98% who are, and right now, in both federal and state governments, that  other 98% isn't doing too well at all.