"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Monday, March 7, 2011

Still Not Serious

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin on Sunday suggested that $6 billion in proposed spending cuts by Senate Democrats is the "limit" that they can go:
“I think we’ve pushed this to the limit. To go any further is to push more kids out of school, to stifle the innovation which small businesses and large alike need to create more jobs, and it stops the investment in infrastructure, which kills good-paying jobs right here in the United States,” Mr. Durbin said.
The federal budget is $3.8 trillion this year.   Ten percent of the federal budget would thus be $380 billion; one percent would be $38 billion.   What this means is that the "limit" that Senate Democrats believe can be cut from this monstrous oozing pustule of a bloated federal budget is about .15%.   The other 99.85% is apparently untouchable.  

To put this in perspective, let's say that your neighbor makes $60,000 a year.  But he's spending $100,000 a year.   You know that he's risking bankruptcy, losing his home, putting his family out on the street with nothing.   So you try to talk to him.   He says he's willing to cut back his spending, but only to $99,850 a year.   If he cuts any more than $150, he says, he won't be able to afford to send his children to expensive private schools or add onto his house or take a vacation this year.   You shake your head and walk away, concluding that you just can't talk sense to the man.

The Democrats are the profligate neighbors.   In your neighborhood you can avoid them, or worry about them behind their backs, but their profligacy doesn't really affect you.   You can live your own life, save money, pay your bills, and stay out of debt.   But in the macro-economic world, the political world, we can't avoid them.   Their debt is our debt, and it's dragging us under.

The Democrat senators, as exemplified by Dick Durbin, are simply not serious adults.

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