Sometimes, numbers and figures can be SO large as to be unfathomable. After all, how often are any of us in a position to consider what it's like to count, hold, see or spend a trillion dollars? And this number represents only one of the 3.8 TRILLION dollars of the 2011 national budget, as proposed by our Democrat President.
And, unfortunately, when issues like this seem so far above our ability to comprehend, we tend to give up, tune out, and entrust others to grasp…
…which, of course, given the extraordinary level of corruption in our Government (almost exclusively from the Democratic side, as it turns out), is a VERY bad idea.
So, when discussing certain realms of politics, I like to use analogies, so that an issue can be broken down to a non-confusing form and can be applied to normal, everyday life…
So, let’s look at the budget, and the breathtaking incompetence of Democrats in the budget process…
First, let’s make one thing clear, as this current budget battle has provided a wonderful example of “what Liberals say” as opposed to what they actually mean.
Harry Reid, along with Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats have expressed the desire to “meet half way” in terms of how much cutting should be done to Obama’s proposed budget. The term they use is, in fact, “HALF WAY”. (If you and I were to meet “half way” on say, $100.00, you’d end up walking away with $50, and so would I, right?). But Liberals don’t view “half way” quite the same way. Republicans have proposed approximately $61 Billion in cuts to a $3.8 TRILLION budget). Democrats (Liberals all of them) proclaiming their desire to meet “half way”, have proposed $10 Billion in cuts. Now, to you and I, “half way” on $61 Billion equates to $30.5 Billion. But to Democrats, “half way”…meeting in the middle…means that Republicans must take around five steps for every one step taken by Democrats. Hopefully, for ALL voters, this will be a lesson learned…
Back to the budget…
Obama has proposed a $3.8 TRILLION budget for this year. Democrats are willing to begrudgingly offer $10.5 Billion in cuts. HUGE numbers, both!
Perspective: let’s say you make $100,000.00 per year. Let’s say, further, that you have decided, begrudgingly, to cut spending and have decided to use the Democrats formula as a guideline.
The proposed $10.5 Billion in cuts to a $3.8 TRILLION budget equates to a total cut of .0028% of the total budget.
In other words, if you made the same cut to YOUR $100,000.00, you’d be proposing to cut a total of $280.00. (If you are thinking that that constitutes “meaningless”, you are correct. $10.5 Billion seems HUGE, until it’s put in perspective).
But, you might say, “well, $280 is $280, and dammit, that’s a step in the right direction!”
And, right you’d be, unless, of course, you put this into perspective of our Liberals’ current spending habits…
A news item came out last week that, in this month alone, Democrats walloped the country with a $225 BILLION deficit…..FOR A SINGLE MONTH! (Keep in mind that the last budget submitted by Bush before Democrats took over Congress was $116 Billion….FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR!).
So, if we take that $225 Billion and multiply it by a years’ cycle, that means that Democrats plan on OVERSPENDING the Federal budget by $2.7 TRILLION (keep in mind that that total budget is $3.8 Trillion).
Perspective:
Let’s say you did the same thing with YOUR $100,000.00. That means that, taking in $100,000.00, you’d end up spending the entire $100,000.00, PLUS an additional $71,000.00!
Putting it all together, in perspective:
If you acted in the same manner as Obama and Congressional Democrats, here’s what you’d be doing:
Your operating income: $100,000.00 per year.
Your current spending habits: $171,000.00 per year.
Your proposal to “cut back spending”: $280.00 per year.
I’m no mathematician, but that sounds pretty stupid to me. And again, not being a mathematician, I rather suspect that, with those habits, I’d be broke.
Folks, I sure hope you keep these things in mind when it comes time to pull the lever...
Hirota: out.
2 comments:
Regratably, the Republicans to whom you ascribe a modicum of restraint are equally culpable. No, they don't curry much favor with public union satraps. They do not pimp for the auto workers' unions.
Instead they encourage corporate cronyism by eviscerating regulatory governance that is replaced by special favors dispended in tandem with their liberal opposites.
Only the new arrivals in Congress intend to carve away a the bloat and its root cause--currying loopholea designed to win friends and funds for re-election.
Despite your appeal to common sense, Tim, when I look to the crop of Reublican 2012 hopefuls, all I see is "Next in Line" wannbe's who have yet to muster the might to cashier Obama.
I am afraid we will have to wait until 2016 for the new Republican House leadership and its concomitant state-level leaders to achieve the critical mass needed to start the dismantling of 100 years of progressive measures. I am thinking of the centennial of personal income taxes and the parasitic vocations it spawned--to say nothing of the special favors the code continues to nourish at the expense of fiscal prudence.
The two major parties have long ago fallen into the rabbit hole.
Please don't get me wrong, Ken...the GOP is nearly as guilty of stupidity. What else can be reasonably expected when the Republican has been so thoroughly corrupted by Liberalism? HOWEVER, since the 2010 election, I've seen a "weeding out" of the cowards and the first inklings that we may return to rational thought, common sense and THE CONSTITUTION.
As far as the "2012 crop", you are mostly right....if the GOP has it's way, they'll front another gutless candidate (like McCain), and hand another election over to the Socialist Party. Romney...Giuliani....with these two idiots in the lead, I'm concerned that we'll NEVER learn...
And, unfortunately, it'll be our children who pay the price for our complacency and stupidity...
Hirota
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