Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister of Russia called the United States a parasite at a lakeside summer camp for youths. During the speech he said, "They are living beyond their means..." And he has a valid point for too long the U.S. government has been living beyond our means. It sounds so simple to say that we need to cut spending. Mr. Putin seems to think so. He also implies that our action are hurting the world economy. So it sounds like Mr. Putin thinks the U.S. government needs to control their spending. I agree wholeheartedly with that notion.

Putting it into action however has proven to be a herculean task. Just look at the recent battle over trimming the budget by 2.5 trillion dollars. A lot of money you say? Yes it is, but not when you compare it to what we are spending. In three years the Obama administration has increased the debt by 4.5 trillion dollars. The hard fought budget battle will reduce spending by 2.5 trillion over ten years. More than three times as long as it took to spend almost twice that amount.

Why is it so hard to cut the budget? Three words, special interest entitlements. You see the Democrats have spent the last 60 years creating a huge welfare state that guarantees them votes and power. The Presidents have bought influence around the globe by spending billions of dollars in foreign aide. The Democrats have created an automatic contribution to their campaign funds by over generous salaries to government employees. Then there is Social Security, Medicare, defense industries, free college for illegal aliens. Pork barrel spending, all kinds of money give aways designed to buy votes, buy influence, and keep the Washington inner circle in power.

Now it looks like the party is over. The U.S. cannot continue to give away our industrial manufacturing base and still pay all of these people off. Like Mr. Putin said, we need to live within our means. So here are some foreign aide entitlements that maybe we could do without.

Aide to Afghanistan - $3,900,000,000

Aide to Pakistan - $3,100,000,000

Aide to Israel - $3,000,000,000

Aide to Egypt - $1,500,000,000

Aide to Nigeria - $647,000,000

Aide to Russia - $68,000,000

Aide to Cuba - $20,000,000

Aide to China - $12,900,000

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