And the Truth Is

The Republicans and the Tea Party have released plans for the federal government budget. And many in both of those parties, considering them separate parts of the larger GOP, have made numerous statements about what they would like to do or should be done with the federal buget. But, as can be asked, what is the truth?

Well, if you crunch the numbers as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and numerous economists have done, you discover they can't and their plan won't, balance the budget. It won't reduce the budget deficit or the longterm national debt. And in fact they do quite the opposite, worsen the deficit and add tens of trillions to the debt.

Their plan is a sham to hide their true agenda which is very simple if you read behind politics. They want to gut the non-discretionary spending except for the Department of Defense (DOD) and Homeland Security Administration (HSA), exempting Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from cuts and increases, to nothing. For now they're saying 2006 spending for the next 10 years. That by 2020 would be a 40% reduction of the budget to those agencies.

They simply want to do away with all of the other government agencies, keeping the DOD and HSA along with the VA. That's their real goal and the real truth. All the other agencies would be dismantled and the costs reduced or transferred to the states. In addition they want to abolish Medicaid, and transfer all of it to the states under block grants. They want to convert Medicare to private insurance with voucher for financial assistance.

And most of all they want to privatize Social Security (SS). Their plan is to convert the savings of the young to market funds which will slowly drain the trust fund as the population ages and dies. In short bleed it to obliviion and death, where sometime in the second half of this century it disappears and everyone is paying for their own retirement plans through market funds.

As you can see that's a boon to Wall Street who will manage the funds for everyone, at a cost and profit to them of course, meaning you won't get your full share, just what's left after their costs, profits and bonuses. The current SS system has about a 5% overhead for the administration of the funds (no profit or bonuses) and all the accounts. Do you think Wall Street would or could do that?

In the end, both plans aren't budget balancing or debt reducing. Quite the opposite. And they want to cut all the basic services our government provides Americans leaving all of us on our own with whatever we can afford and the market will offer. And leave the rest to state and local governments. Like they can or will?

All of that for a DOD and HSA budget that always going up to "protect" America which is really to protect the rich, corporations and themselves who are paid by the rich and corporations The average worth of a member of Congress is in the low 7 figures (millions). Does that equate to the rest of us?

They further divide us by eliminating corporate taxes, only of which small to medium businesses pay anyway, all the big corporation pay no taxes, and reducing the upper income taxes to the minimum, and really zero but they're not saying that, only they'll provide all the tax deductions to get there. Their goal and plan is to make all of the rest of us pay the taxes for their government.

And their govenment is about the military, intelligence and surveillence, the last two against us, innocent citizens. They truly want a government which treats us as the enemy, just a tad above foreigners, all of whom they suspect of being terrorists. The corporate-military complex paid by us. And they live and work independently of us, above all the problems and issues they give us.

This sounds far-fetched, but in reality it's not far from the truth, and only if we let them. And we're on the road there. Look at the level of poverty in this country. The level of underfunded education programs. The level of 50 million American without health insurance. The level of tens of millions more with less than adequate health insurance. The level of pollution in many areas. The level of crime in many cities.

Think about it. We're the greatest nation on earth and we have the highest proportion of the biggest problems of all the industrial nations, some problems approaching underdeveloped and third-world levels. Every nation is passing us for their standard of living.

And what are we doing to get and do better? And where is our government leading, helping and supporting our efforts to get and do better? That takes money, our money, for us, and everyone and every business must pay their share for all of us to prosper. That's what America is about. It's not what they want. And that's the truth.