Budget Politics as Usual

Yesterday morning I watched an early morning political show on television.  My ears perked up when the host started an interview with Harry Reid.  Without going into the boring details, Bob Sheffer and Harry Reid were talking about Congress being shut down if no agreements (compromises) can be made regarding the budget.  Reid commented saying that the Democrats and Republicans are not the problem with the budget.  Both of these parties are willing to compromise.  Reid said that the radical Tea Party is the problem.  He says the Tea Party is fading in popularity "because the American people sees how unreasonable they are. So let me reiterate my hope that the Republican leadership recognizes they can't continue to be pulled to the right by the radical, unrealistic, unreasonable…faction: the Tea Party." Any time Harry Reid starts to talk about a group of people like that I am naturally attracted to them.

The budget can be very confusing when Congress starts talking about billions and trillions of dollars.  My small brain doesn't compute numbers like that.  But, here's what I do understand.  The Democrats want to cut $20 billion.  The Congressional budget is $4 billion per day.  So the Democrats want to cut one week's worth of money.  That's it.  The numbers seem astronomically high, however, when you consider what is really being cut, the numbers don't even make a dent in the budget.

If you didn’t hear about it, Sen. Charles Schumer was caught on an open mic telling his fellow Democrats he was told to use words like “extreme” when referring to proposed Republican budget cuts. Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said he wants a government shutdown, thinking it would be blamed on Republicans.  Shumer and Dean think it's good for elections, so who the heck cares about what is good for America.

We hear words from Democrats like “draconian,” “extreme” and “drastic”.  “Going the wrong way,” is the wording used when referring to the $61 billion Republicans (the Tea Party) want to cut from the 2011 budget, a budget Democrats failed to pass in September.

Some facts are in order. Discretionary spending has increased 24 percent since President Barack Obama took office, and the debt has been raised by more than $3 trillion. The government is “borrowing” $4 billion a day, in large part by buying its own debt.

Our debt stands at more than $14 trillion. We are expected to be well over $20 trillion in debt if Obama serves two terms. And Democrats think a cut of $61 billion is draconian, extreme or drastic.

I wonder what words Democrats would use if Republicans were to really get serious about lowering the debt?

I'm starting to think the Republicans are just as spineless as the Democrats when it comes to the budget.  The Tea Party is looking good to me right now.  Anyone for some cream and sugar?