As good as it gets?

$38 billion dollars seems like a lot. Compared to $1.6 trillion, it’s almost nothing. The bigger number is the projected deficit the US government would run in the FY2011 budget, borrowed money, and the smaller number is the number of cuts agreed to this past weekend to avert the so-called partial government shutdown. It’s a bit depressing and a popular conservative sentiment today is that it wasn’t enough and that any representative who votes for it isn’t serious.

They’re completely right on the first count and are ignorant of reality on the second. Republicans are in charge of one third of the portion of government that votes for the budget. Their portion the House of Representatives passed $61 billion in cuts while the Senate and the President wanted none. To many, “compromise” would have been $30.5 billion. For a three headed monster, compromise could be considered $20.3 billion. Under this understanding the Republicans in the House of Representatives should have passed a budget with $300 billion in cuts to get $100, but they’re too honest for that.

It’s easy to understand the sentiment behind not approving the final number which is essentially just as unsustainable as the original budget. But hissing about it is of no use. From reports of the President attempting to make the so-called shutdown as hurtful as possible to the promise to veto any continuing resolution that would fund the Department of Defense for the remaining fiscal year there was no way for the shutdown to do any good politically. And the reason why is because of the $1.6 trillion problem.

That $1.6 trillion in borrowed money buys a lot. And it composes the primary source of income for too many in our country. There are too many out there that have no idea what health care, what groceries, what day care, what anything really costs because they receive ‘benefits’ from the government shielding them from those costs. It doesn’t mean that those costs don’t exist; they are just shifted to the taxpayer with a healthy cut consumed by the bureaucratic class. And the promise to veto military pay by the president was a cynical and calculated attempt to turn the military into another democrat constituency similar to unions, punishing them for not voting dem by large margins like other government funded classes.

Bottom line is the government’s broke and it has been getting worse for a long time. $38 billion isn’t much but it is finally a step in the right direction. And as hard as it is to take, as good as it was going to get at this time. One can only hope that there are enough citizens not dependent on the government left to ensure that this direction is only the first step towards a more productive country where clowns only find work in tents and the ever-more educated voter turns them away when they try to escape. Instead of demanding omnipresent government benefits for a growing percentage of the country we can really help those who need it and make them more dependent on themselves so they can be truly successful and enjoy that success instead of being dependent on the just-enough provided by two-faced politicians.