Boy Do They Love To Cut Discretion.

       Well, as my old boss used to say, it's time to fish or cut bait. By that I mean congressional leaders and the president have reached the point where they really can't put it off any longer. They've got to address the budget and by that I mean they can no longer agree to disagree and put it back up on the shelf. The time has come to do something about fixing the economy and cutting the deficit and who knows, maybe even the debt a little bit. Well, okay probably not the debt, but at least the deficit.
       I'll get back to the debt, but for now let's concentrate on a budget that begins to address the deficit without destroying things like education. The easiest thing to cut, I'm told, is so called discretionary spending. You do that at home all the time. Discretionary spending means things you really don't need, but are fun to spend money on. But in hard times, you cut out that trip to the movies or dinner out at someplace where they actually come to your table and ask you what you want.
       That's easy, except that's not what it means to the government, as you might expect. Discretionary spending means Pell grants, Head Start for low-income preschoolers, grants for research, weather satellites, border security and on and on. Most discretionary spending by government, other than waste, is pretty important to most people.
       Actually almost all spending by the government is discretionary when you come right down to it. In fact you could say all spending, but I suppose some would say that things like bridges that go to an uninhabited little island somewhere in Alaska are essential.
       The thing is, the last time the congress did any real cutting it was to discretionary spending, exclusively. Maybe this time they could display a little backbone and a cranium filled with something besides pork. Maybe this time they might consider cuts to a military that's more costly than that of the next ten largest countries in the world, combined. And since we're ending two major wars, maybe congress could find a way to do a little cutting to that military.
       Then there's taxes. In the eighties and nineties taxes were much higher, and the economy was humming along at a much higher rate. The rich were getting richer and the middle-class was doing much better too. Then came the tax cuts of the 2000s and the economy did a lot worse and the rich got richer and the middle-class didn't do so good. Does any of this give you any ideas?