And if we were all so damn smart why didn't we have something in place before this became a problem?
We have been hearing over the past several months about how leadership needs to step up and make the hard decisions in regards to the budget crisis in this country, yet it seems that even before the argument got started the republicans were set on entitlement cuts and the democrats were set on cutting the tax breaks for wealthier citizens.
Does that sound like a hard decision was made? It seems to me that the harder decision would be to go thru and remove the billions of wasted dollars on duplicated service, overbid contracts, unfinished projects and the general pork barrel spending that includes every single state in the union.
The government in general pays far to much for both goods and services yet no one is saying lets do what other business's have done and pare down our staffing, change our hours of operation and look for better ways to profit from the services it renders.
Democrats still seem content to throw money away on programs like energy star. Republicans are more then nearly any time in history completely dedicated to protecting deep pockets. We have a rally of the poor supporting the rich and I fully expect to see the cat chasing the dog.
We have left one of our major values by the side of the road if we somehow feel that those who profit most from being American citizens with our freedoms and resources should not be required to pay a lions share for the privilege. It is our very society that allowed them to flourish, they were educated at our expense we provided a safety net to their assumed risk. It is the responsibility of those who can, to help those in need who they ultimately profit from.
With great risk comes great reward, but more and more often we are seeing the manipulation of markets where no true risk exists. We have undersold our economic resources to American companies for decades, all the while quoting the scripture of reciprocation which as we see today in our time of crisis does not exist.
Cuts and reforms if necessary should be made, but I say let them come after all other waste is identified and eliminated. After we remove the "perks" of office and exorbitant salaries and benefits. After we take a long hard look at the duplicated services and inefficiencies that plague the current system.
Those of us who are closer to the bottom then the top should pay heed to their instincts instead of the rhetoric of either party.