The "due upon receipt" invoices the GOP have been screaming about have been looked at, read, worried over and stressed about till the only sensible thing to do has been to stuff them under the rest of the mail and worry about it later.
Which is totally weird on accounta when the Democrats said, "Hey, guys- the debt ceiling is really something that can wait- maybe we need to talk about other things first- things that are actually, yanno- KILLING people" the Democrats were called all sorts of horrible names and told that they were Traitorous Amer'ca Hatin' Poopieheads.
Because the debt ceiling needed fixed RIGHT NOW. NOW! NOW!
Or May. Whatever.
I know I'm early (or late) in talking about this but here's what I think of the whole "What if the national budget were a family budget? SEE??? Totally irresponsible unless you're a Commie Government Leech Democrat Welfare Momma!" argument when it comes to balancing our federal budget.
First of all, the federal budget isn't at ALL like a family budget. Mainly because the money owed on it is owed...to ourselves.
So, if my family had had say $100,000 in the bank and wanted to build an $80,000 house, we could conceivably take that money out and promise ourselves we'd pay it back ASAP since that's our retirement savings and all. *Note- this is for hypothetical purposes only- what we have in the bank couldn't build a bird house. For little birds. Like wrens and shit.
After our house was built, say we had other stuff come up- a job loss or big medical expense or something and we just haven't had the chance to pay any of this money back into the account.
Do we evict ourselves?
Of course not.
Even IF the reason our expenses are higher than expected living in the new house and we decide, "Hey- this wasn't such a good idea- it's too big of a house and we need to downsize" in the meantime what do we cut back on?
We sit down and look at the budget and think 2 things-
We need more income AND we need to cut back.
So, being the family member who is able to provide more if I need to, I look for a part-time job to augment the budget because (according to economists of all stripes- not just squishy liberal ones) you CANNOT cut your way to savings- you must also have additional income.
Then we look at spending.
Lets look at the GOP "government budget/family budget" thing and see what it does in real life and for really what they're
Cuts to 'entitlements' which is that whole social safety net thing they hate so much. Veterans? Old people? Children? Women? Sick people? Fuck 'em. Bootstraps, baby- nothing but bootstraps for you.
In a family budget that translates into groceries, doctor visits, school expenses and medicines.
Our Family First GOP is telling America, "Too bad, so sad- we need to cut expenses and cut 'em deep to pay back money that we borrowed from ourselves. No hard feelers, remember if you believe in god, you'll go to heaven and never be hungry or sick again, and if you hurt too much now, you have access to any gun you want to blow your sorry brains out (and maybe your children's too IF you love them).
What the bloody hell?
Who tells their family they must be hungry and sick and uneducated because there was a clerical miscalculation when there's no bill collector at the door with a baseball bat waiting to break your kneecaps but it's just your own damn bank account that's not being paid back?
Self-righteous bastards, that's who.
So I would get a part-time job to increase income and then look at truly expendable expenses- things like maybe cancelling an expensive security system because we're out in the middle of nowhere and we have big dogs patrolling the place that do just fine, and maybe if we went to church we'd cut back on our tithing...
...because for some reason I think Jesus would say, "FEED YER KIDS BEFORE PUTTING MONEY IN THE COLLECTION PLATE".
So as a nation, perhaps we need to look getting the citizens who have the ability to pay more into the kitty to actually do that, then at military spending and probably re-thinking the tax-exempt status of churches.
Just by tweaking those three items in our nation's Family Budget, we could have enough money to feed everyone, offer universal health care and free or low-cost college for all our students.
Because if you're going to use the national budget/family budget analogy, you are automatically projecting that we as a nation = a family. Family cares for each other- even those who don't think like you do politically, even the ones who need a little extra help from time to time.
If it's found out that you are denying your children and disabled and elderly family members food, clothing, and medical care because you are paying money back into your own freaking BANK ACCOUNT, Social Services comes in and you are proclaimed an unfit parent and piss-poor human being.
Why the hell can politicians and propaganda-fed constituents do the same things to fellow Americans and consider themselves exemplary fiscal conservatives?
I keep hearing, "Well? Do we wanna be the next Greece?" as if that's not only a question, but an answer. Greece and other countries are suffering not because they're NOT enacting 'austerity measures' but because they ARE.
Read more than one news source- we have the entirety of the world at our fingertips now- why paint yourself into a corner containing only people like yourself playing an endless game of 'repeat something long enough and it becomes true'?
Acknowledge that other American citizens are NOT your enemies- and don't have to GET OUT if they do or say something you don't like.
IF the National Budget = a Family Budget
THEN ALL American Citizens = Family
Start acting like it.
