Keeping The Lights On In Washington

Image via WikipediaThe federal government is open for business.  For now.  President Barack Obama, Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made a last-second deal that would cut $38 billion from the budget, sparing everyone the embarrassment of the first government shutdown in 1995.  Congress is scheduled to vote on it this week.  The art of compromise is still alive in Washington, even if it is just for show.

Despite all this needless drama caused by the usual partisan bickering and Tea Party heckling, in which everyone thought national parks would close, tax refunds would be delayed and soldiers fighting in wars would not be paid, what wasn't so well known is that members of Congress, the President and other "essential services" would still get their money.

Nothing's been finalized, but some media outlets are reporting that the cuts would come from education, labor and environmental programs.  Planned Parenthood and public broadcasting are among those programs that the Republicans tried to gut, but won't be affected.  The military will still get what it wants.

House budget chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin has been making quite a name for himself in suggesting that the government should slash $6 trillion over the next decade.  Washington being what it is, you know they're not going there.

But there's still more budget battles to come.  Next up is a push to raise the federal debt ceiling, because by law the government can only be in hock for so much.  If there's no agreement, the doomsayers tell us, the United States might be the next country to default on its loans.  Gee, wonder how China will feel about that?

We've all seen those reports on the evening news investigating how the government spends "our" money on silly programs.  They make for good TV, but are kind of meaningless.  To most people, the money that the government spends is all just numbers that run perpetually on the federal debt clock.  Besides, once that money leaves your pocket, it isn't really yours any more, is it?

If government can't (or won't) spend its money wisely, how can they expect anyone else to?