Balancing a budget

I have a question for you all, and I'm hoping that you'll be able to answer it the way that I tend to answer.

First off, when you pay your bills, and balance your budget, do you figure into your budget how much you're planning on spending the following pay period? And does that amount increase exponentially each pay period?

No?

You mean you look for ways to cut back on extra expenses, and then you make your payments in order to get your budget and finances on track, right?

Why can't our nation figure this one out?

I mean, it's a noble gesture for any campaigning president to say that they aren't going to raise taxes, and that the middle class isn't going to bear the brunt of the repayment of our deficit.

The truth of the matter is far from noble, though.

Tough times call for tough actions. I don't like the thought of having to pay more in taxes, but I dislike having to pay in perpetuity the expenditures that our nation keeps piling on itself year after year.

Our budget keeps growing, we keep spending, and we don't look to try to balance anything out. But we will make promises about not raising taxes, or having the middle class carry the burden of helping pay back what we owe.

Let's get real here.

We need to take steps to get out of financial ruin, and in order to do that, each class is going to have to face some ugly factors.

The rich folks are going to be taxed quite heavily. So are large corporations. Not only that, but these corporations are not going to be able to "sharehold" these expenses to their subscribers, so this means that the high-end jobs are going to take a serious paycut, and some low-end jobs could be lost.

The middle class is going to have to pay more as well. There's no getting around it. About 70% of the income in this nation is done by the middle class, and if you're going to cut out 70% of your earned income before trying to pay bills, you might as well use an eyedropper to fill a 50 gallon fishtank. It's not going to happen within anyone's lifetime.

Lastly, the lower class is going to have to take some hits as well. Food stamps need to be cut down. Welfare needs to decrease. We need more stringent guidelines for all folks with state or government assistance, just to make sure that they really DO need the assistance, and aren't just trying to skate by doing as little as possible, and getting the most that they can.

Put these steps into practice, and you're not going to be very popular, but you will get the job done.

The problem is that for the job to get done, you're going to have to become the villan, and villans don't tend to get additional time in office.

This is why no political official is EVER going to be able to get our deficit brought under control.

We like having power, and we like being in places of prestige. How can you have either of those if you upset the folks who put you there in the first place?

Then you have issues like Detroit having to declare bankruptcy. Yup, the motor city looks like it's going to have to get reposessed. Sure, the inner city looks nice, thanks to the millionaires who have funnelled enough cash into the city to make the areas where they live and work look really good. However, the rest of the city looks like photos from a demilitarized zone.

Did you know that it takes almost an hour for police to show up for an emergency call in Detroit?

That means you can get a pizza delivered faster than emergency services!

We need to start deputizing pizza delivery drivers, so that we can not only feed these folks, but also have protection in 30 minutes or less!

Then the most amazing thing I found about this was that the major car production facilities in this great city have had record-setting years financially, and are not about to try to help "bail out" the city they call home!

I just don't get it.. Do you?