The next "Budget Crisis" won't be negotiable...
The Federal Government could learn from Arizona.
The deal-making-as-usual by the standard issue political class of posturing Republicans and Democrats in Washington DC, that held a "down to the last minute" showdown this past weekend, was a mockery to taxpayers. They tried once again to make fools of us. No one really caved and all that happened was a lot of shifting of money and budget figures.
The new State Legislature of Arizona that started this year after the last General Election inherited a budget fiasco due to the tomfoolery of the last Legislature. This month they created a real actual budget that was signed by the Governor. This budget slashes spending and cuts some agencies and services realistically and without sleight of hand shifting of dollars on paper. It also rejects borrowing and recognizes there is a huge shortfall in revenue that will be carried over to the next session of this Legislative Session (Arizona's legislative sessions are two year terms) next year that will have to be dealt with by more cuts. The reasoning is simple: "We ain't got no real money." State revenues are falling and there is no point in creating a budget that continues to spend money that is not coming in.
The next Federal Government budget, even if Bernanke keeps printing phony money, can no longer be a cat and mouse game replete with high drama, back door dealing and accounting gimmicks. That is because we really don't have the revenue to fund a lot of things that the government spends on and it will be worse by then. If tax revenues aren't high enough and since raising taxes only makes an already overtaxed population (yes, the "rich" also) that much poorer, what is there to budget maneuver? And yes again, there will be hue and cry over welfare programs for the "needy," Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, among other things. Repeat: "We ain't got no real money." Nothing adds up to nothing.
If however, the current political class tries those tricks again, as I suspect they might, we would get the government we deserve for voting the jackasses into office. The next budget is not up for high drama and should not be negotiable. If that is what occurs, we would be far better off voting the members of Congress up for reelection out, voting in inexperienced but pragmatic and realistic representatives that reflect us, the real people of America.
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