Once upon time there was a captain of a boat. This young captain was a good man, intelligent and well spoken. When he spoke of his boat he talked about a great and wondrous vessel. A boat unparalleled in all the seas. He spoke with such a great passion and eloquence that to listen to him was to agree with him. People would nod and smile and think to themselves, "what a wonderful boat this is." What's more they would look at their captain and smile, for he was a good captain.
Now, no captain can helm a ship by himself, and our young captain was no different. He was surrounded by a fine crew who, just like the captain, loved their ship. They worked hard to make sure the ship sailed smoothly. And even in those time when the crew could not agree what was the best course for the boat they would find a way to compromise and chart a path for the boat, and work to keep her running. What a great boat this is, the people would say to one another, truly there is none finer. The people would watch the crew and smile, for this crew worked hard to make sure that the boat would always move forward.
Unfortunately this was an old boat, and old boats do have their problems. And in this case the problem was that the ship was taking on water. All around the hull there was cracks, and holes, through which water would flow. If something was not done the beautiful ship would sink. The captain and his crew got together and they made a plan. They would give everyone, both the crew and the passengers, buckets and they would bail the boat out. Those that were the strongest were given large buckets, those who were weak or small were given smaller buckets and, at times, even given assistance to lift them. And together they began to bail out the boat. But soon problems began to arise.
The water rose faster and faster and soon the stronger passengers began to complain that it was too difficult to lift their large buckets with all of the water around them. So the captain and the crew gave them smaller buckets, while taking smaller buckets themselves, and so the water continued to rise. Again the strongest of the people said that they couldn't bail with the buckets they were given, so they were given small buckets while some of the strongest had no buckets at all. As you would expect the water rose ever faster. The captain looked at his distressed passengers and told them not to worry. He would fix the problems, be would stop the leaks and return the large buckets to the strongest people. The passengers were relieved and went back to bailing while the captain went to his crew.
However, when he met with them his voice failed, and his strong will seemed diminished. He did not call for the buckets to be returned, instead he focused on the weakest passengers, those that needed support to even lift the smallest cup. He pointed to them and said, we will take their supports from some of them for they tie up too many of our resources. Those passengers were in shock as their help was taken, their sad eyes focused on the giant holes in the ship. Next the captain said, look, we must plug these smaller holes to slow the tide. But the waters still rose as his crew shouted back, that it wasn't good enough, they wanted all of the supports taken from the smallest people, and they wanted to only focus on the smallest of holes to make sure they were completely closed off. The captain and his crew began to argue in earnest about which of the small holes should be filled, and in what order. All the while the passengers watched as torrents of water flowed through the largest of holes, and still the men shouted, but never about those gaps.
So the ship sailed on. And if you listen closely over the roar of the water, and the sound of the bailing, and the yelling of the crew you could hear the soft slow cry of the small and weak. They cried for the support they lost, the blame they felt, and the fact that they were forgotten by those much stronger than them. Tears ran down their faces adding to the rising waters that would inevitably drown them all.
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Okay, I'll be the first to admit that my little story was very over the top and an incredibly simplified version of what is going on right now in Washington as it relates to the argument over the national budget. But here are some things that I know are true. The current budget proposals, that have come from both democrats and republicans make major cuts to some of the smallest programs. No one from either side of the aisle has proposed to make cuts to our biggest expenditures, and if they are talking about it they aren't talking very loudly. Those people that are going to be most effected by cuts to things the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) feel absolutely shit on by these decisions and the people that are making them. And for once I won't apologize for my language, because I can't imagine there is a better word to describe how they are feeling.
Here are some statistics to solidify how ridiculous this whole plan is.
President Obama made the following budget cuts to some of the programs that are most "important" to him.
- The CSBG is going to have it's funding cut in half, from $700 million to $350 million. (-50%)
- The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program is going from around $5 billion to about $2.5 billion. (-50%)
- The Community Development Block Grant Program will be losing about $300 million. (-7.5%)1
That is a total of just over $3 billion dollars. Meanwhile, here is what is happening with military spending:
- Research and Development is going from $80.21 billion to $75.72 billion. (-5.6%)
- Procurement is going from $135.79 billion to $128.05 billion. (-5.7%)
- Operations is going from $292.83 billion to $294.89 billion. (+.7%)2
- Cutting R&D by 50% would save us $40 billion dollars.
- Cutting Procurement would save us $68 billion dollars.
- Cutting Operations by just 7.5% would save us $22 billion dollars.
Even cutting the first two by 25% would save us $50 billion, that is a lot of money. And really that is the most alarming part. The cuts to the poverty services are so small and effect such a small portion of the deficit that it seems like it is all for show, which makes it even worse. Here is the sick thing. If we didn't cut any of the military budget, and instead simply didn't raise the amount going to operations we would save $2.06 billion dollars, more than enough to cover the cost of the CSBG, the CDBG and almost half of the Energy Assistance Grant. It is embarrassing.
What it comes down to is a group of men and women who are making decisions for our nation that are so out of touch with the reality of peoples lives that they would rather stand around shouting at each other about which small holes to plug while the water rises around their ears3.
My mom emailed me earlier this week and she passed down some of that motherly wisdom you always forget is there until it slaps you in the face. So I'll leave you with her words to me.
"I am truly convinced that I want someone representing me who has personal experience with family members, or close friends who have truly experienced hardship...why can't we help those who want to help themselves. This issue brings tears to my eyes and a knot in my stomach."
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1 These statistics were found here: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2011/02/14/133748987/whats-in-the-2012-budget-plan-npr-breaks-it-down
2 These number are from the New York Times infographic which gives a good representation of how absurd the breakdown of the budget it: http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/newsgraphics/2011/0119-budget/index.html
3 By the way, they also decided not to raise taxes. Now, I'm no Kelley School of Business graduate or anything but I'm pretty sure if you are in debt the only way out is spend less than you make. If we can't spend less then we need to make more, which means, wait for it, more taxes.
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1 These statistics were found here: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2011/02/14/133748987/whats-in-the-2012-budget-plan-npr-breaks-it-down
2 These number are from the New York Times infographic which gives a good representation of how absurd the breakdown of the budget it: http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/newsgraphics/2011/0119-budget/index.html
3 By the way, they also decided not to raise taxes. Now, I'm no Kelley School of Business graduate or anything but I'm pretty sure if you are in debt the only way out is spend less than you make. If we can't spend less then we need to make more, which means, wait for it, more taxes.
