Paul Mirengoff at Power Line posted an article about the current discussion on cutting the federal budget in order to deal with the growing deficit. Sequestration, which is seen as something that will seriously damage the American economy by most of Congress, is rapidly approaching; and because somehow the information has gotten out that the concept of sequestration was an idea created by the White House, there is an effort to prevent it from happening. There are a number of reasons to fight sequestration–despite the fact that defense and domestic spending does need to be cut, this is not a good time to compromise national defense. The Democrats are also screaming about the cuts to domestic spending. So the discussion continues, but it is not necessarily an honest discussion.
The article at Power Line lists some of the ‘targeting cuts’ the Democrats in Congress are praising:
But, as the Washington Post demonstrates, in practice “targeted cuts” frequently prove to be no cuts at all. Instead, they are a method through which legislators can claim to be slashing the budget while continuing to spend at the same levels as before.
Consider the $37.8 billion in “cuts” agreed to in 2011, proclaimed by President Obama as “the largest annual spending cut in our history.” The Post finds that package to be “an epic kind of Washington illusion, stuffed with gimmicks that made the cuts seem far bigger — and the politicians far bolder — than they actually were.”
For example, the Transportation Department took credit for “cutting” a $280 million tunnel that had been cancelled six months earlier and a $375,000 road project that had been created due to a typo on a road that didn’t exist.
Meanwhile, the Census Department took a $6 billion “cut” for not conducting the 2010 census in 2011. And Congress agreed, in the spirit of shared sacrifice, to “cut” $14.6 million by not spending money on a visitors center that had already been built.
These aren’t “smart” cuts, they are smart-ass ones.
Until each member of Congress is held responsible for their role in the runaway spending, the spending will continue. Until voters can easily learn how their Congressman or Congresswoman votes on spending issues, the runaway spending will continue and the budget deficits will continue to grow. At the current time, with low interest rates, about 15% of the money spent by the government goes to interest on the debt. This is the equivalent of paying the minimum on your credit card every month and wondering why you are going deeper into debt all the time. When interest rates increase, that number will rise sharply. Is this a burden we want to leave to our children as they grow up and inherit the country?
