Our Political System

Is it me, or is our political system spinning out of control?  Our representatives seem to have lost all motive for what they are there for -- take care of the people's money.  But they just can't get along.  They argue.  They backbite.  They can't agree on anything.  I swear that one political party thinks the sky is orange and the other one thinks it's yellow.  In fact, it's blue!

The problem that this creates is that our country is attempting to go in two vastly different directions and we, the taxpayers, are funding BOTH.  We can't seem to compromise as each party blames the other for the ills of society, and insists that their direction be chosen.  It's maddening!

Of course slicing up the budget into categories and seeing what we might be able to cut is a difficult, tedious process, but it must be done (1).  Here's a two part article that outlines things fairly well.  We must realize that our military is too big and we give away too much to people who are act irresponsibly to begin with.  I know one of those statements don't sit well with you if you are a Republican and/or Democrat.  I'm sorry, but we have to cut some things.  Those are areas where we can.

With the average salary of a Federal employee trumping that of the private sector by quite a margin (2), I also believe a 15% pay cut for all Federal employees is in order.  Apples to apples or not, Federal employee total compensation (with benefits) is simply something we can't afford as a society given the "parasitic" nature of those employees (3).  Government should not be paying this kind of compensation vs the private sector.  Even taking into consideration the differences, the Federal employee's pay comes out on top.

Additionally, we need to take a good hard look at our military spending.  Look at our budget:  Any way you slice it, the military part is too big.  We can not afford to be the world's policeman any longer.  We can not afford to fund over 700 bases outside the U.S.  We can't afford two wars.  I'd much rather reduce our troop levels, scale back the weapons of war, and put 10% of the money we save back into prevention and intelligence.  Remember the adage:  A stitch in time, saves nine.  It's true.  It's what our forefathers subscribed to.  While there was a lot of disagreement back then, common sense seemed to prevail more often than not.  We need to get back to that.  We need to balance our checkbook.  Issues be damned.  Our house needs to be in order.




(1)  http://thefalconpost.com/archives/406
(2)  http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2010/03/blog-post.html (yes, a blog, but see his cites)
(3)  http://blogs.federaltimes.com/federal-times-blog/2010/08/19/cato-federal-employment-is-parasitism-on-private-sector/