In Star Wars it is really easy to identify the good forces in the universe (Luke, Hans Solo, the collective "Force", Obi-wan Kenobi) from the evil forces (Darth Vader, the Death Star). In real life it may look obvious sometimes, but check this out.
Today you can watch both the FY 2011 and FY 2012 budgets unfolding. A cspan junkie's dream. It almost looks like they are for different countries.
FY 2011. Since our current beloved federal government is funded through March 3, after that - poof! All federal operations shut down, for without the petroleum that is money (called appropriations) that funds federal operations, nothing will happen. Your favorite tax collector (maybe your cousin, in fact) will go home. No food inspectors, so time to grow your own veggies. No highway administration, so get used to potholes (a boon time for auto mechanics!)
Today we have House Resolution 1, the first bill of the New 112th Congress. Which would fund the federal govt for the rest of this fiscal year - through Sept 30, 2011. What have we got in there: cuts to many things.
Zeroes out (stop right on passage of the bill) various worker retraining funds, such as prisoner re-entry, or youth programs, or all that unspent stimulus money. That is not obligated. So quick obligate those funds now or they also disappear. Cuts to cancer research, to community oriented policing. No aid to states, so let them go broke. Cuts to drinking water upgrade programs (so, get used to bottled water). Oh, and absolutely under no way shape or form, will there be another cent spent on Stimulus signage (you know those highway signs advertising - this program funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act?)
Then there is the President's FY 2012 budget, for the fiscal year that begins on October 1. People wax eloquently about something they've never seen - the President's budget is released in February, then the various Congressional committees chop it up and debate intelligently 12 separate appropriations bills. Then they pass them over to the Senate who step up the intelligent deliberations in their wisdom. They all get passed well in advance of October 1, so when the new fiscal year starts, all stakeholders (any state, any state agency, many groups which receive federal funding - like your local food stamp caseworker, your unemployment check, your fish inspector, to name a few) have certainty about their funding. Ah how nice to have this textbook vision, one that some people who are less than 25 have never seen in their lives!
In this budget what have we got. $53 billion for high speed rail! Is it cost effective? Well it sure sounds cool and if it took me 2 hours I could get to LA in a very quick hurry. A reprieve for all those states who kept their unemployment tax rates very low, and now in this continued Great Recession, have had to borrow from the Department of Labor (who had to borrow from the Treasury, who had to borrow from China. I think thats as far as the chain goes..) No interest payments on these loans for 2 more years! And then after that, raising the amount that the employers in their state would pay unemployment tax on. But! To keep from passing any kind of tax increase on any single employer, correspondingly reduce the tax rate. Voila! No tax increase! Does this make any state's unemployment fund more stable? Or just kick the can down the road..
So which is the Good Force, and which is the Evil Force? Is it right and proper and American to make large cuts to federal programs that people have come to depend on, which help the lives of many disenfranchised by our capitalist society, for the sake of a sustainable federal budget? Or is it right and proper to invest in the future and support employers along the way, even if it is not sustainable cause they all need stimulus and investment now to help our economy grow? Help me, Obi-wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!
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