The political crap going on in D.C. has worn me down. Congress is playing its usual political games with nonsense like the Dream Act, Don't Ask Don't Tell, and oh yeah, the economy.
In the real world, most rational people try to solve the serious problems first. That's the opposite of what congress does.
Take the question of what to do with the Bush tax cuts. Either eliminate them or make them permanent. Don't play kick-the-can-down-the-road and push the problem off for two years. That's how we got into the social security mess.
There won't be any meaningful progress on reducing the deficit until we tackle mandatory spending.
Mandatory programs, as the name implies, are payments the government is obligated by law to make. These include interest on the debt and huge programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. These programs are also known as entitlements, because when you reach a certain age or drop below a certain income level, you’re entitled to them. These benefits are set by specific formulas, so they’re essentially on autopilot.
(Source for text and chart here.)
Mandatory spending accounts for around 62% of all federal expenditures. If we're serious about reducing the deficit, that's the place to start. But no politician will go anywhere near those entitlement programs because that would put a serious crimp in their reelection chances. So lame ducks engage in bitchy little "I'll show you" snit fits while the real problems remain unresolved - hell they're not even being addressed in a meaningful manner.
It's enough to drive a man to drink...
UPDATE: Professor Hale has the same idea, but expresses it much better than I did.
UPDATE2: Ditto for Old NFO.
Great minds think alike...
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