The House Republicans came into power this year promising to cut the budget. Immediately the special interest groups circled the wagons. Senators argued why they need earmarks, the Main Stream Media shouted Oh! No! the evil Republicans are cutting Social Security and Medicare! Everyone who has their hand in the cookie jar is fighting to keep their sweets from Uncle Sam.

This just goes to show you how bad it is in Washington. How entrenched the ay+for+play&sa=X&ei=8_tVTYrPG5SftweLp72XDQ&sqi=2&ved=0CBwQkAE" target="_blank">pay for play mentality is. Now for you and me $100 Billion dollars is a lot of money right? So when the Republicans say we are cutting $100 Billion dollars conservatives shout hoo-rah! And the Liberals pull their hair out and rend their clothes crying what about the children, the elderly, the minorities? But when it comes to the Federal government and the country as a whole, is $100 Billion a lot of money?

Lets take a look. In 2010 the Federal government spent about $3,450 Billion dollars that is 3.45 Trillion. The government took in $2,162 Billion or 2.16 Trillion. So the budget deficit for last year was about $1,288 Billion or lets say $1.3 Trillion. So reducing a budget of $3,450 Billion by $100 Billion is cutting the budget by a whopping 2.9% What a sacrifice! How could we ever manage! But hey lets compare it to the deficit. Maybe that will put things in perspective. So if the yearly deficit for 2010 was $1,288 Billion then $100 Billion dollars would be...Wow! 7.8% now that is a sacrifice. Imagine how could our country ever get buy. The elderly will starve, the Military will fall apart. Oh my! What are we to do?

Still $100 Billion does sound like a lot to the rest of us so lets put it into perspective. The average American household makes abut $46,000 a year. If you take out the Federal taxes (no State taxes), you have about $3,215 a month. That would equal $38,580 a year to spend on food, housing, clothes, transportation, and entertainment. Now suppose you had a virtually unlimited credit card. A Super Deluxe Triple Bonus Platinum Master Card from China. OK so in 2010 the Federal government spent about 59.6% more money than they made. So we will pull out our calculator and say have much would Joe Average spend if he overspent by 59.6%? That would push Joe's budget from $38,580 to $61, 573. Nice pay raise Joe! But sooner or later the bill will come due. As Joe gets closer and closer to the point where his creditor is no longer willing to fund his debt, Joe will need to cut back.

So Joe has a plan. He is going to cut his budget by 2.9%! That should fix the problem. So instead of spending 61,573 dollars a year he is going to spend $59,788. A savings of 1,785 dollars a year. Way to go Joe that will fix the problem. But how will he make such a sacrifice. Lets look at his monthly budget. Joe is spending 5,131 dollars a month. Under his new austerity plan he is going to reduce that by 149 dollars a month. How is Joe ever going to manage that? He might have to give up his premium cable package, avoid eating out a couple of extra times a month and maybe give up a movie.

So all this fighting and political posturing is all for the average Joe's equivalent of $149 a month. Boy are we in trouble...

-- Thomas Paine 2

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