When Is A Cut Not A Cut?

Ever heard the one about the wife that comes home, arms full of shopping bags and says to her husband, “Boy I saved you a bunch of money today”?  I figure she must work for the Congressional Budget Office because that is exactly the load of bull pucks they are trying to sell us now.  We hear a lot of talk from the shysters in DC about cuts.  And the super committee being deadlocked between the Republicans that want “cuts” and the democrats that want tax increases because the “cuts” would be too painful and the rivers would stop flowing, the sky would fall and the sun would go supernova.  The plain and simple truth is there are no cuts, never was and probably never will be.  Both sides are lying to you about that.

The reason they get away with these lies is that they changed the meaning of the word “cuts”.  They did this by using a little tool they developed called “Baseline Budgeting”.  The way it works is that increases due to predicted inflation rates and government service expansions (that’s a fancy way of saying hiring more people) are automatically figured into the next year’s budget.    On average, the Congressional Budget Office increases spending projections each year by about 20%.  Then, if we only spend 19% more the next year, YAHOO!  We cut 1%!!!!!!!!   

The fact is, that if we froze all government spending right now, spent the same amount next year as we did this year and so on and so on for the next ten years, the CBO would call that a 9 trillion dollar cut!   As I said before, both sides are lying to you about this.  Republicans are telling you they are slashing budgets……  LIE!  They are only slashing the automatic increase that will happen, spending will still go up.  Democrats tell you they will have to cut programs for vital services like Medicare to make reductions…….  LIE!  Medicare, Medicaid, Defense, EPA, Energy, Education and the rest of the plethora of government programs won’t get cut one red cent, only the extra money they were planning on getting their grubby mitts on next year will be less.

The fatal flaw that should be screaming out to all of us, (or at least all of us that are not smoking dope in a tent at Zucotti park or eating steak and arugula in the oval office) is that this method of budgeting does not take into consideration projected revenue at all.  You see, congress really does not care how much money it will take in while figuring out the next year’s budget, only what they want to spend.  Everything is figured based on that.   If they don’t come up with enough revenue there are only two choices as far as they are concerned.  Raise taxes or deficit spend, it doesn’t even compute in their little pea brains to cut back on the size and scope of the federal government.

That, my friends, is what it is going to take to fix the mess we are in and actually reduce our debt.  While it is vitally important to get the Community Organizer in Chief out of the White House, of even more importance is replacing those men and women in congress on both sides of the isle with citizens that are committed to a smaller federal government.   We may not get there this election or next, the best we may be able to accomplish is to stop or slow the bleeding of this once great nation this coming November.  But let us not grow complacent and satisfied at that point.  Our problems as a nation are much deeper than that.  It is going to require us to be committed, engaged, active and resolute in our mission to rid Washington DC of professional politicians and replace them with patriots who desire to serve.  Our forefathers were committed to sacrifice everything to build this republic.   Are you committed to preserving it?