The Re-Re-Re-Invention of the Wheel

Read the Story Here:White House Deficit Talks Coming Apart At The Seams

Both House and Senate members today released their picks for budget negotiations liaisons for their respective parties. Both Republicans and Democrats chose to send far fewer than the number of legislators requested by President Obama (8 from each party), and many of the picks on both sides of the aisle are already becoming controversial, threatening to slow or severely complicate the formation of a working budget by September.

After what was a narrowly avoided political and financial disaster regarding passing a new Federal budget just a few weeks ago, here we sit, deadlocked yet again.

Both parties in the last round of budget fiasco were both forced to cherry-pick which pet programs would be sacrificed and which would be saved. Obviously, the right vying for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and the Defense budget while taking a machete to the rest of the Federal Government and the left attempting to save programs that help the poorest in America as well as fighting to preserve programs such as the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), Planned Parenthood subsidies, as well as their biggest accomplishment of the prior legislative session – health insurance reform.

So instead of bickering over the minutest of details and facts, can we simply apply some common sense here and quit wasting everyone’s time?

Every single budget discussion quickly turns into a partisan shit fest where every program, its effectiveness, and its funding are called into question. While I feel those factors probably do need to be addressed, I would think that’s something we would do prior to having these talks.

All of that aside, why do we attack the Federal Budget like we’ve never done this before? Go back about a decade to the Clinton administration. We had a budget surplus. Not only a budget surplus, but a robust and booming economy in which the Middle Class grew like weeds, the top 2% were still the top 2%, and the poorest folks in America at least knew their children had a shot at the Middle Class if they studied and worked hard.

And I’ll be honest – I don’t particularly care who can take the credit for that budget. Point is, we have already found a model that works exceedingly well. Let’s go back to both the spending levels and the revenue levels of the mid-90’s and see where that takes us. All spending an equal percentage of the GDP as it was back then, all taxes back to those rates for everyone.

This is your “EASY” button, Federal Government. All you have to do is push it.