Paul Ryan’s Budget: America- Our Financial Chickens Have Come Home To Roost And It Ain’t Pretty!

Congressman Paul Ryan has proposed a Budget for 2012 which he calls “The Path To Prosperity: Restoring America’s Promise”.

When comparing Congressman Ryan’s Budget Resolution with President Barack Obama’s Proposed Budget there is absolutely no question that given the choice, Congressman Ryan’s Budget is the better of the two. Democrat critics have described his Budget Proposal as “Republicans trying to balance the budget on the backs of the poor”.  Personally, I do not believe that Congressman Ryan’s proposed budget goes far enough, and I am by no means wealthy!

While Congressman Ryan’s proposed Budget addresses some essential issues, I believe he is still playing into the typical political games that our politicians play. Critics can say that the plan is an attempt to “balance the budget on the backs of the poor” all they want, but just because they say it doesn’t make it true. For me to take any politician the least bit seriously when they talk about balancing the budget or getting spending under control, they are going to have to stick their necks out and say things that will most definitely be twisted completely out of context by the opposite side of aisle, and quite possible be admonished by the same side of the aisle.

The fact of the matter is if someone doesn’t make the tough choices, none of us are going to have the opportunity to balance our Federal Budget ever again. We are not going to have a nation to worry about a budget for! We are systematically destroying everything that our Founding Father’s dreamt of by bowing to the criticisms of political agendas.  For most Americans- and I include myself in this group- the numbers are quite simply overwhelming. The enormity of the situation we are in financially as a nation does not make any sense at all to most Americans because we cannot honestly fathom what the numbers mean. Unfortunately, rather than facing the facts most people have chosen to simply stick their heads in the sand and ignore it.

The overall outline of Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget, which he calls, “The Path To Prosperity: Restoring America’s Promise”  is that he will cut $6 trillion, reform entitlements and cut taxes. That sounds great! However, cutting the $6 trillion happens over a period of 10 years, NOT IMMEDIATELY! This is still not enough!

There are some definite positives in Congressman Ryan’s budget, the main one being is that it will repeal Obamacare- the Democrat’s health care bill that Obama and the Democrats rammed down the throats of the American people! This is an absolute must, in my opinion, if we are to have any hope in the future as a nation.

Another positive issue that Congressman Ryan’s budget  addresses that is essential is it eliminates  “hundreds of duplicate programs”. This is an absolute must! We are wasting trillions of dollars every year with one government agency overlapping several other government agencies. Multiply this by one hundred and you can see how much money is being wasted when Congressman Ryan’s budget “eliminates HUNDREDS– with an “s”- of duplicate programs”.

I guess it’s true what they say- we did not get into this position overnight, and we are not going to get out of it overnight. However, the interest alone that we will pay even in Congressman Ryan’s 10 year plan is still astronomical! One of the “Key Facts” in Congressman Ryan’s Budget Proposal is that it “puts us on the path to balance and pay off” our debt. I see that the plan is a good start, but should not be seen as the plan to get us out of debt as a nation. We still need to go back to the chopping block and cut more unnecessary spending.

Call me a simple girl, if you will, but it just makes things much simpler if you term things down to the basics. To understand something you have to put it in terms you can process. For the sake of this article, we are going to put the Government Budget and look at it through the eyes that we look at our household budget. I know- this is not the way the Government sees things. They believe they have an entirely different set of rules that apply to them. Oh, wait a minute! Let me correct myself! The Government does not feel that any of the rules apply to them! It seems that most all politicians – Democrats and Republicans alike- feel that they are above the law. The time has come for this to stop! They may see themselves as the elite, but they are not!

My husband and I are going to be the hypothetical example I am going to use to prove how and why the Government Budget should be changed.

The way I see things, if you don’t have the money, you have to cut the budget no matter what it takes. I realize this does not make sense to politicians because this is just common sense. Our politicians have proven to us that common sense is missing in Washington!

Common sense tells us that if my husband loses his job, we have to adjust our spending. If we have been responsible we have a savings account so we are prepared for the rainy day emergencies such as a job loss.

There is the possibility that we have not been able to start a Savings Account. So to keep things on an apples-to-apples comparison, we know that the Federal Government has absolutely no savings.

Even if we do not have a savings account, there’s a good possibility we have credit cards. Here is where the choice comes in. If we are irresponsible we can keep our spending habits the same and just charge things to our credit card- that is, assuming we have credit left on the cards.

If we are responsible we slash our household budget to the absolute necessities until he is able to find another job. If that means we have to leave our 4 bedroom home and move our family- which includes 5 children- into a smaller home, then this is what we must do. Entertainment- which for our family consists of mostly activities we can do together and cost nothing- must be cut to family movies at home or simply playing the backyard. We do whatever it takes until we get back on track. Yes, this means we make tough choices. Yes, this means our family is not as comfortable as we are accustomed to.

This is what the Federal Government should have done years ago! This is what we should do now! However, I know this will never happen. There are too many politicians playing too many political games. There is no one willing to step up to the plate and make the tough decisions.  Our elected officials are more concerned about getting re-elected in the next election than they are about what is necessary to get our country back on the road to financial prosperity. This is Democrats and Republicans alike.

I realize that I am one of the very few people who have this viewpoint. Everyone has their sacred cow. I have no sacred cow- this includes our National Security. My solution for cutting the National Security budget is simple. Bring our entire military men and women home and put them on our borders. The world doesn’t like us being the world police, and we have no business being the world police.

When I married my husband neither of us were independently wealthy. The day we got back from our honeymoon we found out that there had been some mismanagement by his business partner and they had to shut the doors to their business. He was without a job! And we had just gotten married! That day I told him I married him for better or for worse, richer or for poorer. I told him if it meant we had to live in a cardboard box then so be it, as long as we were in the cardboard box together.  I meant every word I said!

Over the years we’ve had situations come up where we use this as a regrouping moment. I have reminded him, “Baby, if I need to find us a cardboard box, I’ll start now.” Thankfully things have never reached that point for us. I know this is not true for many people in our country today.

America needs to realize that if we do not make some very tough decisions NOW then eventually we will ALL be living in cardboard boxes!  We will all be trying to simply survive. There will be no money at all to pay for the Entitlements that everyone refuses to give up. The American public needs to realize and accept this and our politicians need to learn and accept this! Unlike what President Obama seems to think is the reality, we cannot just turn on the printing press and print more money. Eventually things will catch up to you.

When you cut through all of the political speak we are still simply kicking the can down the road. If Americans are serious about “Restoring America’s Promise” on “The Path To Prosperity” we are going to have to all face the facts about where we are as a country! We’ve buried our heads in the sand long enough.

As President Obama’s former Pastor, Rev. Wright said, “America, the chickens have come home to roost”! Our financial situation has caught up to us! Our poor choices over the years now have brought us serious consequences! America, we must wake up and smell the chicken poop! It’s nasty and it stinks. But no matter how much we try to avoid it, if we don’t make the tough choices we are all going to be stepping in piles and piles of the chicken poop that the “chickens that came home to roost” have left!

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See https://conservativedailynews.com/?p=9664 for companion article.