WE THE PEOPLE are part of the problem!!!

I saw a quote from The Economist that stated a poll found that 62 percent of Americans think the best way to reduce the deficit is by cutting spending. 62 percent! That's a lot of Americans to get to agree on anything. But our Congress and President, current and past ones included, rarely cut anything when it comes to spending but instead, they find new ways to spend it, which requires feeding the federal giant more and more and more and ... you get the idea.

So, if so many Americans are in agreement about what needs to be done, why can't we get it done? Because we don't want OUR spending cut. Yes, we whine about earmarks, but that nice facility down the road paid for by federal dollars, that can't possibly be cut. Oh, and that airport that 10 people use a week? Yeah, those 10 people don't want it cut either. Oh, and those Medicare/Medicaid subsidies, no, can't cut those. How about Social Security, after all, it makes us money, right? Sure it did, until this year anyway, but regardless, there are a ton of better ways to run a retirement program, ask Chile and Australia, both using better, more cost effective models that aren't just Congressionally mandated ponzi schemes. Oh no, can't change how Social Security is done and certainly can't cut it, Americans don't pay attention to saving money and so need all that extra "help". So, WE THE PEOPLE, are part of the problem. We allowed the federal government to turn into the huge dragon that eats its own in "How to Train Your Dragon" and now we are nothing more than the little dragons, relying on the big one for support and defense and security. If you've seen the movie though, you'll know that those things are only provided to the little dragons as long as they keep feeding the monstrous one. Yikes! How do I know we are part of the problem? Because 62 percent of us think we need to cut spending, yet when asked in an Economist/YouGov poll where people think we should cut, not only could a majority not agree on anything, but what they did agree on made no difference. See, here were the results ...

Veteran’s benefits 6%
Social Security 7%
Medicare 7%
Medicaid 11%
Education 12%
Highways 12%
None of the Above 12%
Health research 13%
Aid to the poor 17%
Unemployment benefits 19%
National Defense 22%
Science and Technology 22%
Mass transit 27%
Agriculture 27%
Housing 27%
The Environment 29%
Foreign Aid 71%

Sorry folks, 62 percent of us think we should cut spending, but we couldn't get more than 29 percent to agree on where we should cut except in foreign aid. Well that's just great. Let's cut all foreign aid, I'm all for that, except we'd only cut 1 percent of the federal budget by doing that so it isn't enough. The Environment got high numbers too, as did Housing, Agriculture and Mass transit. Agriculture would actually do something because of all the farm subsidies but still not enough. Even if we cut all these things into non-existence, it still isn't enough. Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid make up 40 percent of the federal budget, yet only 7 percent could agree that this is where we need to cut. Defense is 20 percent and only 22 percent could agree here. So, 2/3 of the budget is off limits? Is that what we are saying here? Astounding. Even worse, 12 percent of the respondents stated that we couldn't cut in ANY of the areas stated. So, yes, the President and the Congress are largely at fault for mishandling and misspending our money, but our own inability to depend on ourselves rather than slowly enslaving ourselves to the federal dragon. Conclusion? WE THE PEOPLE are part of the problem!