Can we sequester the government?

As a whole no doubt, but...

Anyway been trying to avoid the topic, mainly because it has become the same old piece of crap argument now for months.

And anybody with any iota of common sense can think of a thousand ways to bring sanity to our federal budget. Back in November I started talking about stair stepping our way over the cliff, the other day I was talking to someone and we were agreeing just some basic consolidation to get started would help. It seems we have been adding a new department for every new bill for decades now. Maybe an exaggeration, but hell, there are so many government departments I am not sure Congress could reduce the size of government because they don't know what they have.

And we do need to reduce the size of our government, I bet even moderate liberals are ready to see the government more manageable, it is just that the Republicans can't see past the end of their ego to actually put forth a program that would win back support for a conservative agenda. Same old dead horse here, but realistically most people are ready to hear our elected officials come up with something that makes sense instead of all the blame and finger pointing. Both sides of the aisle have failed us tremendously.

And for ideas, there is so much cream off the top to reduce spending we could do a slow manageable pull back without really dipping into the actual services offered people for a couple of years. It just takes some thought. Again some basic consolidation, let some attrition happen, especially at the higher pay grades, and still be able to offer government employees a reasonable salary over time. Take small percentages off the top of the overall budget just to make managers etc plan better budgets. And again I think no services would be reduced with some planning. This happens for the first two years giving a responsible set of elected officials time to work on the harder problems. And if the people demand it, we could get real spending cuts. The problem with the Republicans is they want to cut spending without dealing with the problems all this spending was suppose to fix, especially in the entitlement game. Democrats act like spending cuts will destroy the economy and unfortunately they have a bit of political momentum, but realistically we need to cut back. Yes we could raise a bit of revenue to get started, but long term it has to be the reduction of the size of the government, reduction of the size of debt and interest payments, and finding ways to solve problems at the local and state level. We can't ignore issues like poverty or horrid public education, but we can find better ways to attack the problem.

I feel that the federal government should set policy not try to fix everything. We do need a strong federal government in the modern world, but we don't need it in everybody's business. Learning how to balance a federal government to address domestic problems and be strong enough to address world threats is a possible goal, but this shouldn't cost an arm and a leg. And for world threats, this does encompass dealing with unimaginable threats as time goes along. So being flexible, not large is what we need.

And this is why I have been avoiding the topic of what is suppose to happen today/tomorrow or whenever. My thoughts run crazy and hard to keep them in line.

So back to my first point, common sense rules. You can talk to most anybody and they have an idea of what to do. So the blame game and the its your fault game etc is tiring to hear over and over again. Maybe we don't have all the right answers, but we have answers and it seems more than Congress and the President.

Remember the movie from the 80's I think it was called Network, where the main character wants everyone to yell out the window I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore. Looking at the situation now, it seems he was right and we are thirty years behind the curve. Unfortunately solving the problem takes more than yelling out the window.

Spring is around the corner, the yard is full of weeds, and there isn't enough green in the wallet to take care of it all.

Have a great weekend.