Budget, Schmudget
Wouldn’t it be great to pull together a bunch of no nonsense Moms armed with red sharpee pens to go into these budget sessions and redline anything superfluous out there and get us out of this crazy crisis we are in. Obviously there will be differences of opinion between what government should and should not pay for, but I’m willing to bet that some pretty ordinary folks could probably perform some pretty extraordinary number crunching.
One of my favorite feel good movies was Dave. It was about a presidential look alike that stood in for the president who laid in a coma and it was not clear as to if he would survive, or if he would be irreparably brain damaged and unable to complete his tenure as president. It highlighted an ordinary person’s impact on life in the most powerful position in our country. I liked that the movie showed even people with good motives are often stymied by the bureaucracy of our government. I thought the scenes which showed the presidential stand-in giving the budget a literal blood bath was awesome.
While I was vacationing recently in Hilton Head, I was chatting with a shopkeeper and asking her what happened to all of the cute shops that used to be in the little mini mall that she was located. I was ill prepared to receive her diatribe on how every single person in our government is corrupt and the sense of entitlement that so many people have is sickening. Her opinion was that our giving so much was a huge part of why our country is in such an awful recession. Although I don’t know that I agreed with every word that she was saying, I can certainly give merit to some of her ideas, and it definitely got me thinking. One of the tidbits that I found interesting was the liquor bill that Nancy Pelosi racked up during the course of her tenure…I was extremely curious as to the truth of it all, and looked it up: http://www.businessinsider.com/nancy-pelosis-in-flight-food-and-drink-costs-101000-2010-1 One of the things that blows my mind is that this is only one person. I can’t even imagine what kind of grand total all of those serving our country are racking up, and wonder how much should truly be paid for by yours truly and the rest of the country. It only served to reinforce negative feelings I got from the experience I had years ago when witnessing the secret service prepare for a luncheon for the then president elect. http://obsessmuch.com/my-brushes-with-fame/
So my word of advice for all of those politicians working hard on that budget, start from the top town. Limit terms for those serving in congress so that they don’t get a sense of entitlement. Entitlement is not just a symptom of those that are disadvantaged. Take a hard long look at all those programs that don’t make sense any more and really look at the numbers like the rumored $300 toilet seats and $700 hammers you hear about when doing construction. You can catch the drift of what I am saying.
I also feel that empowering people instead of just providing crutches is the real secret to making any kind of progress towards some of the inequalities in our society. I love the idea that you can’t get welfare unless you pass a drug test. I love the principle behind Habitat for Humanity, driving home that you have to work for what you get. I’d love to see people that are out of work trained to work on urban farms–in places like empty lots and rooftops–to get fresh, healthy and organic food to people that truly need real food with real nutrition. They’d get bonus exercise and maybe actually learn about how to stay healthier with better eating and getting up off of the sofa.
I hope that the budget crisis results in real solutions like the ones above to get our country doing for themselves more and more…one can surely hope.