I would love to show respect for Congress, the White House, and those generally in charge of spending our tax money. But, I can’t. All of the hullabaloo that we’re witnessing surrounding government shutdowns, continuing resolutions, budget deals and other official-sounding phrases is ludicrous and childish. It’s all about past agreements and hurt feelings. The current budget year started Oct. 1 and starts with dollars agreed to almost a year ago. This means that current “negotiators” are fighting over money already agreed to through a series of agreements among all parties.
Further, negotiations cover only discretionary spending, sans military spending which all sides can easily agree to given various reasons. To wit, this amounts to roughly 25 percent of federal expenditures. Now for the real kicker: setting aside disagreements over priorities, which will never be settled with the two sides of the Capitol headed by different parties, the spending disagreement is less than $100 billion, which is less than 2 percent of all spending.
It’s up to us to expect better from politicians. Find out what your candidates for federal office are doing and vote accordingly. They’re either part of the solution or part of the problem.
