Budget Battle

Even though a government shut down has been averted for the time being, it just goes to show the how the tyranny of the minority governs us, making millions sweat it out while addressing ideological issues rather than the seriously harmful issue like trillions for perpetual war on foreign soil.

The budget battle and the threat of a government shut down is an example of the tyranny of the minority. Six hundred and thirty five legislators made millions of Americans sweat it out. Military families wouldn’t receive their pay and 800,000 government workers would be furloughed.

Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus stated “What the Republicans are looking for is to take the general federal-funding program for family planning known as Title X, to turn that into a block grant, to give it to states, many of which, you may recall, have Republican governors and perhaps give those Republican governors the flexibility to administer the program in a way that, guess who, Planned Parenthood, might not be able to get the funds.”

This is what they’re fighting about, exemplifying the tyranny of the minority, where keeping the government functioning turns into a battle over abortion.

And while on the subject of battles, just last week Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said the US might stay in Iraq if the Iraqis asked us to stay. How much more will that cost us and where is the concern to get out of that country and cut spending? There isn’t any.

At one time there were more contractors on the ground in Iraq than there were US soldiers. Contractors cost up to $250,000, so four contractors is a million dollars, eight is two million and so forth. So what does hundreds of thousands of contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan cost us? Big enough to rival funding to Planned Parenthood. But this is how the minority misleads us, by attaching heated emotions to all aspects of governing.

Speaker of the House John Boehner said he’s “damn serious” about spending cuts and wants to know when the President and Congressional Democrats will get serious about cutting spending.

Yes, just when will John Boehner, and the rest of the politicians get serious about cutting trillion dollar spending on expenses like war rather than million dollar expenses like Planned Parenthood?