How to Polish a Budget Turd

How do you polish a budget turd? The Washington spin doctors for both sides of the isle excel at it.

First, you wax that turtlehead with extensions and delays so the public loses interest.

Second, you scare the public with talk of overzealous cuts to social programs causing loss of women’s rights, environmental disaster, implosion of our educational system and the end of life as we know it from one side; however, the other side terrorizes the public with rhetoric about the spending cuts not going deep enough causing financial collapse, higher unemployment, an insolvent social security system and the end of life as our great, great, great grandchildren will know it due to debt.

Third, both sides threaten to shut down the government causing wide spread panic about slowing down the already horribly sluggish economic recovery. Already knowing neither side will get completely what they want, both sides posture for the press as if this were the week before an election because they are standing on their principles?

Fourth, you wait until the last minute to put that final coat of wax on the budget turd to get that imitation victory shine. When everyone thinks the government will shut down leading to disaster, you pass the budget turd out in the eleventh hour acting like you fought through a battle with constipation to do the job you are paid to do in the first place, and the public will be grateful. Voters won’t realize that both sides ended up compromising like they could have done last September.

Hopefully, the fact Belgium has made it over a year without a government will go unnoticed. Their garbage is still being collected and their schools are still in operation; basically, life didn’t end when their government shut down over constitutional reform. They are probably in for some rough times with debt problems of their own. Their country is barrowing about 100% of their gross economic output for operating costs, and they have an aging population which will make their expenses go even higher. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, I think our government’s recent turd should have been flushed. For all their talk about business creating jobs, the Republicans and Tea Party have forgotten the first rule of business, sometimes you have to spend money to make money. The Democrats have missed the boat because they should have pushed to add programs which would have spurred economic growth, creating new businesses and jobs before they caved on tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. I’ll say it one more time Tea Party people. We need to grow our tax base to get rid of the deficit not gut our police, firefighters and teachers like budgetary pigs, and you don’t grow your tax base by getting rid of Planned Parenthood or forcing women to have unwanted babies. You’ll just get a bigger population not necessarily more jobs.

By the way, don’t think I’m a tax and spend Democrat. I think taxes should be reduced especially for businesses. Our corporate tax rate should be lowered to make us competitive with the rest of the world, but we need to close loopholes that let those same corporations not pay any taxes. Fair is fair after all. If we are going to give any credits to businesses, they should be tied to job creation. Voters should remember that businesses pass on any taxes to their consumers in the end so business taxes are a wash. We end up paying them in the end anyway so why not get some jobs back. As for the richest Americans, I wish I had to pay $5 million dollars in taxes. Do you realize how much money that means I got to keep? I’d say cut their taxes even more, but only after we see some real economic growth, or give them tax credits only after proving they created jobs in this country. (You have to add that.) Quit giving them tax breaks causing a larger deficit larger than the social programs you just cut on a vague promise they create all the jobs. I didn’t see one of these rich people the last time I called a plumber or an electrician when I created work for some real Americans. Where is my tax break? They must be hiring an awful lot of plumbers. Maybe it’s from trying to pass all those polished turds?