To the editor:
Congress is frozen in never-never land about balancing the budget or even cutting some expenses to reduce the annual deficit that hovers in the $1 trillion-plus range for the foreseeable future. Any possible cut is dismissed as being too small to make a difference. Congress should, like a sculptor before the masterpiece emerges, chip away at the granite block of debt, or nothing will ever be accomplished. The longest journey starts with one small step, but Congress believes in one giant misstep that can be fixed – later.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has identified a hundred wasteful agencies and duplicate programs that, for starters, could substantially cut the annual deficit. Congress says that is too easy, or too hard, depending on how it is perceived, and does nothing because the single all-killing silver bullet is not in the gun barrel, nor will it ever be.
President Obama’s fake 2013 budget proposal epitomizes the mentality of Washington, increasing unaffordable spending and tax increases; adding nearly $1.5 trillion to the annual deficit and national debt, an insult to even the intelligence of Congress, which will close its eyes, reduce some of the increases in spending, and claim to have cut expenditures.
Congress cannot fathom the value of the Chinese adage of “death by a thousand cuts,” requiring 999 seemingly insignificant cuts, causing sometimes agonizingly slow pain before the 1,000th cut finally slays the deficit monster.
A parent does not teach a child the benefits of balancing spending by increasing the spending allowance and credit card limit without requiring that the spending horns get pulled in.
But Congress is not a true guardian of
As for incumbents, Mark Twain famously said, “Vote the rascals out,” and he meant all of the rascals.
An old unappreciated adage advises, “Take care of the pennies, and the dollars will take care of themselves.”
Albert Maslar
Absecon
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