Budgeting

[digitaldiscipline]

Dear Politicians of every stripe:

I DON'T GIVE A FUCK IF IT COSTS YOU YOUR NAMBY-PAMBY JOBS, YOU NEED TO RAISE TAXES, OR AT LEAST CLOSE LOOPHOLES IN THE TAX CODE. FAILING THAT, CUT DEFENSE SPENDING.



I am sick and fucking tired of the farcical "debate" going on about "balancing the budget" at the federal, state, and local levels. Those scare quotes are intentional, because neither of them are, once you get down to it, actually what's fucking happening.

All the noise comes, unsurprisingly, from the right wing, who wants to cut spending money on people and wants to retain spending on things. I am, at heart, a big fan of responsible fiscal policy: don't spend more than you make all the goddamned time. At some point, someone is going to get sick of extending you credit or helping pay your bills.

So, you can tighten your belt, up to a certain point... you can also make more money.

Politicians, for whatever reason, are big proponents of suggesting ways to cut spending on programs they don't like, but are loath to suggest *stage whisper* RAISING TAXES *stage whisper*.

I don't know about you, but I kind of like making more money; it means I can do more things that cost money (because, let's face it, folks, whoever said "the best things in life are free" never had an amazing sushi dinner or floored it in a fine automobile). I get my exceedingly modest annual merit raise, and, sure, it's not like I'm gonna buy a new car with it, but I can maybe buy a few more books, replace some worn-out clothes, splurge on a few more HD cable channels, or even just eat out a little more often.

Or, writ large: Increasing tax income means that we can put some bucks into our schools, upgrade and repair an aging infrastructure, invest in new technology, or improve benefits for people who need them.

But, no. Politicians only talk about "spending" and "waste," not "buying" or "investing" when it comes to what is done with tax dollars. Sure, some of it is spin, but a lot of it doesn't need to be.

Those of you here who are (or have been) employed by federal, state, or local governmental agencies: Do you think what you do is worth the tax dollars you're paid? Do you think it could, or would, be done by the private sector, and if so, would it be done as well?

I said it yesterday, and I'm saying it again now: the function of government is to provide a framework within which their citizens can survive and prosper. It costs a certain amount of money to do this; if you want to spend extra dollars on extra things, you're going to have to earn them.

And that means that the politicians who want to spend the money need to justify to us, the folks who pay for things, that they are worth it.

Comments

[inyou.livejournal.com]

if they would remove the higher-end caps on some of the taxation laws it would help too.. I was talking with my tax preparer about Social Security, and granted the benefits cap out at a certain point too, but they also stop taxing wages at a high rate of "I'm already wealthy enough so go ahead and let me keep more" instead of being a consistent rate of taxation of income