It is obvious to even the most casual observer that Washington, D.C., is out of touch with rest of this country. But what is even more disturbing is there are many common folk who are just as out of touch with reality as the generic Washington politician.
We, the people of this country, are bankrupt. We have a debt that is now nearing $16 trillion; that is $16,000,000,000,000 - and, no my finger didn't stick on the "0" key. Now, let's take into account that we only have a population of 310 million - 310,000,000 in decimal (I could do it in binary, but only us computer geeks would be able to decipher it). Now do the math (hint: use scientific notation due to the huge numbers) and you will find that it is a small sum of only $51,600 per man, woman and child. What really makes this bad situation even worse is that, at present, only half the population is paying in more taxes than they are receiving in returns. So that means each taxpayer is on the hook for more than $100,000 in debt.
Now, the GOP is trying to cut programs to the tune of $300 billion over 10 years, which breaks down to $30 billion a year, even if they stick to the program after the next election cycle. And the Democrats are screaming that the Republicans are trying to kill the poor. Get real; with an annual budget of nearly $4 trillion, this $30 billion represents roughly a 0.0075 percent budget reduction. Now that is going to save the nation, ain't it?
Most people do not even realize there is something called baseline budgeting in the federal government. That is, there is an automatic budget increase annually ranging up to 10 percent. Sort of an automatic pay raise every year. This must go now. Useless and redundant government agencies need pruned down or eliminated.
I am sick and tired of hearing people (complain) the government is not doing enough for (fill in the blank). When have you ever seen the government do anything efficient? The military at one time did, but now the politicians have wormed their way into this last bastion of government sanity and fixed it, and now you are seeing the results.
Simply put, "Americans, put on your big boy pants and fix the problem, don't (complain) about it." Remember, you voted those guys in. "I wish, I think, it should be, it isn't fair" is not going to pay the bills coming due.
Tom Heer,
Upper Sandusky
