An Urgent Deadline, an Apathetic Response

After the New Year’s Fiscal Cliff situation many Americans were in a panic. What was going to happen to my lives? What will change? How will I live if we fall off the Cliff? While many other people were dreading the day, my government class and myself where anxious to see what Congress would do about the problem. Our class was doing a project that allowed us to make our own solution and I (along with many others) were wondering if our solutions were close to what Congress and the President would come up with. After many hours of watching the TV, waiting for updates the solution was released to the public. There were higher taxes, as expected, but not the spending cuts that needed to happen. Instead Congress delayed the decision until March 1^st. Now it is close to the deadline, again, and Congress is not working, as they should to solve they problem they left to do later. Though Congress leaders know that there is no definite deadline when bills need to be passed. Instead leaders say that the “cuts can be phased in over time” says Alan Silverleib and Ted Barnett from CNN. But with how opposed to each other’s ideas the two parties are, Washington will need as much time as they can get to finally reach a decision.

Photo Source: Conservative News Central

Though Congress might not be as urgent as they should be, neither are the people of America. Is the $85 billion necessary spending cuts not important? There are not stories on every news channel about the March 1^st deadline. Instead the new is filled with stories about other events that everyone would rather listen to. There are more significant things in the eyes of the public, such as gun control, Oscar Pistorius’ homicide trial, and other more recent news. If the public is not interested, the news channels and papers will not publish much on some topics even if it needs to be talked about. “Congress isn’t even in session this week” revealed CNN, why would they not be in session when time is running out?

Though Congress is not meeting, there is no doubt that there is talk of solutions. There are Committee meetings, and President Obama probably has the topic on his list of things that need to be talked about. But the two parties have probably not come together to talk of a solution that will satisfy both sides. President Obama expresses his want for collaboration between the two parties at a White House event when he addressed the Republicans asking them if, “they [were] willing to compromise.” Obama and his administration want to There need to be meetings now, so another repeat of the December Obama and Boehner discussions that didn’t end well for either side.

As a student, reading an article about Congress not worried about a deadline makes me confused. Now, in my high school career, deadlines and due dates direct my life. When I hear of this attitude about an important subject it confuses me. But I then it makes me think of all the things I have not learned yet about the “real world” that is thrust upon a young adult after he or she graduates high school or college. Even when I learn these things there will still be things I don’t know about the world of politics, which keep changes through the years as new events occur every day. Though there may be things I have not learned yet, there are many things that I have learned in just the passed year that have changed the way I view the world around me. Now that I have an understanding of government I have my own views, instead of just agreeing with everything my parents say about current events. I now can develop my own opinions and tell them to the world. As updates come out about the March 1^st deadline, there is no doubt that I will be there to insert my own ideas and see how the people in Washington solve the problems of today.

Still Falling Off the Fiscal Cliff

Boehner and Obama disagreements

Even though the Fiscal Cliff deadline has passed, questions are still being raised about the spending cuts.  Previous arguments of both parties are still in the forefront of political debate.  The parties are blaming each other and nothing is getting done even though there is an impending deadline of March 1^st.  America may be on the brink of a fiscal catastrophe and it appears that John Boehner and President Obama cannot shake hands and come to an agreement.

Looking back at our great nation, one must cite the Concord Coalition, where “brave Americans kept at it against overwhelming odds because they had a vision of the grand nation they wanted for their future and for generations to come”. The citizens of our nation feel that the government today is losing sight of what is fiscally right for the people.

America faces deep fiscal challenges threatening the sacrifices made by our forefathers to make our nation great.  The idea that the government borrows hundreds of billions of dollars annually to pay for huge consumption is outrageous. This consumption forces our citizens to bear the burden of carrying the massive debt that continous to only get worse for the generations to come.   Our elected officials are afraid to cut back on spending and don’t dare to raise taxes to pay the debt. They continue to cut taxes while increasing spending to support special interests in Washington.

Outrageous Spending

According to CNN, “Congress, which isn’t even in session this week, doesn’t appear close to taking action on the $85 billion in forced cuts, which take March 1”.  Massive military spending cuts which were meant to be drastic and help the budget have yet to be put into effect.  This is just one example of Boehner and Obama’s disagreement.  Boehner blames Obama for the stalemate and calls Obama a failed leader.  Obama urges the Republicans to compromise. There is a concern to protect investments in education, healthcare and national security. Securing these investments impact jobs. It is possible that hundreds of thousands of jobs will be affected by the Congress dragging their heels. Even Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asked Republicans to listen to the American people and work in a bipartisan way to reduce the deficit.

Even though President Obama proposed an idea for spending cuts that was approved by congress, they were still allowed to borrow from the treasury to pay the nation’s bills. What is amazing is that citizens are expected to pay their debts monthly, while our government fails to do the same.  It appears that our congress believes that they have the right to borrow and spend at will, where average citizens are told to live within their budget.  Americans want a balanced budget, but it doesn’t seem like our leaders do.  These adults, who are supposedly our nation’s leaders, need to learn to compromise as they teach their children to do.  The Republicans and the Democrats must budge on their opposition to closing tax loopholes and make the fiscal challenge right for all Americans.

Pensions and Spending Cuts

Politicians are rather well off; they take other people’s money and risk very little except their jobs. When politicians want to be re-elected they start a campaign. Obviously the politician needs money to do this, spending money will win the recipient votes, but raising taxes to pay for this spending will lose votes.  Fortunately pensions offer away out of this problem.

Thomas Sowell a journalist describes the politician’s management of pensions as “Creating pensions that offer generous retirement benefits wins votes in the present by promising spending in the future”. In the past someone’s word meant everything, now days it does not have the same significance. Sure the government will have to pay them back, but when and with what money? The promise of something does not cost anything for a while and that’s what happens the politicians make promises, but after a while they retire and it is someone else’s problem. This means that very shortly many pensions will need to be paid and there is not enough money in reserve to pay them back.

One might say that to get this money the government can cut military spending. This could have great benefits, but I know history has a similar story. In the 1930’s, FDR cut on military expenses. In the beginning of WWII the U.S. had the 16^th largest military in the world. Even for a small military it was still inadequately supplied and trained. Many soldiers in the Philippines fought with guns from the Spanish-American war. Even the grenades issued somewhat worked, some of them were so old that they didn’t explode when through. The U.S. has one of the best armies in the world and maybe cutting funding to the military is very prosperous, but if there is a war the U.S. will suffer. However, because we live in a nuclear era maybe we could cut the military and not have any consequences due to M.A.D. (mutually assured destruction).

Personally I think that cutting the military might not be a bad idea, but it defiantly is not my first choice. There are other places that the government fund that should be cut such as un-important statistics like the one in California that they somehow concluded that there is a direct link from eating ice cream and drowning’s. This is a very clear false statistic and the government should not have funded this.

In my government class we have been talking about the economy and how it can be improved. We have even done a project on this and had to present the idea.  Spending cuts were a few ideas, but only a few thought that cutting military funding was a good idea. Based on what I have learned in this class, I have learned to keep an open mind to everyone’s opinion. I am staring to understand how much influence the president has and how he should use it properly.  I have learned how politicians work and some of their tricks. The pensions above clearly state one of the tricks they hold. However, the more I look into the way politics work, the more I am saddened that they only seem to look out for themselves. Instead of doing their job and doing what’s best for the country. One thing is clear, the future is uncertain and anything could happen.

Congress’ Blunt Knife

Source: Washington Post

While everyone may be exhausted from hearing debates on the “fiscal cliff,” America still has a lot more grief ahead with the budget sequester. Congress may have found a temporary solution to the “fiscal cliff” by trying to solve the debate on tax increases, but it has put off spending cuts in order to have more time to avoid the budget sequester. A part of the Budget Act Control, the sequester was put in place during the negotiations of the debt ceiling in 2011 as a “last resort” that promised spending cuts both Democrats and Republicans would suffer from. This was considered a compromise for the debt ceiling (The Washington Post). This agreement was enacted in order to avoid a situation that Congress is currently in because if they don’t make a deal then the sequester will go into effect and 10% cuts across the board will hurt America greatly. The cuts in defense will devastate the Republicans whereas the cuts in other departments such as research and education will shock the Democrats (Forbes).

Currents events and articles on these topics have helped me to have a better understanding of what exactly is going on. In our “fiscal cliff” project, my group focused on both the tax increases and the spending cuts, but we did not understand that if a deal was not made on the spending cuts then the sequester would be put into action. We were unaware of what exactly the sequester was and what it meant for our nation. Now that solutions to tax increases have been reached at the end of 2012, Congress has until March 1^st to come up with the solution to what seems to be the bigger problem of the fiscal cliff (Forbes). If they do not reach an agreement then severe budget cuts in departments such as defense and other domestic spending will devastate our nation and we will fall off the cliff even though it was temporarily prevented by the agreement on tax increases (Forbes). It is not smart to have across the board spending cuts of 10% in every department. The cuts need to be carefully negotiated. There is no doubt that there have to be cuts to lower our debt ceiling but it must be done surgically and cut where it will be least painful to our country. Making cuts evenly across the board will be like using a blunt instrument on our country to open it up and watch it bleed out in a recession.

Source: Forbes

Focusing on how current events are connecting to our government class, this story has helped me narrow my understanding of what the budget sequester is. While we were discovering the details behind the fiscal cliff, I had a lot of trouble understanding exactly what was going on. I leaned on my teammates to help further my understanding, but learning together as a class helped me push my mind to understand. This article about the budget sequester relates to our government class because while we have been discussing current events, the second part of the fiscal cliff, the budget sequester, has been brought up many times. It is a topic of hot debate and it is interesting to see everyone’s point of views on the possible decisions to be made. We see that it is time for our government to step up and lead our country out of the possible turmoil that is in our future if nothing is done, and in this government class, we are taught how to stand up and lead. We are taught how to be responsible upstanding citizens of this country and I believe that is something that directly applies to the situation that our country is currently facing with the budget sequester. It is time to stand up and be responsible leaders.