My First Blog Post
Welcome to my blog, Life Is A Four Letter Word. I don’t know about you, but when I’m most frustrated is when I tend to drop F bombs, and use colorful language. What do I get frustrated about, you ask? Well, the state of our world in general, as well as other pet peeves. I get the most frustrated when I’m having a conversation with someone in a position of power to change what is wrong, and they pacify you like they have no interest in what you are saying. Such as when that person gives off an air of “well I’m an expert in this category and you’re not, so we’ll go with what I say.” People like that are the biggest obstacle in making real and effective change, not only in this country, but throughout the whole world. I really don’t understand why some people feel so threatened by someone else having a differing opinion, or offering a different point of view. After all, no one person knows everything. Don’t get me wrong . . . I always start out being nice and respectful, and not overtalking the other party. There is nothing wrong with having confidence in what you are saying, and trying to present information in a direct way in order to brainstorm ideas. However, there are times that the so-called “expert” takes offense to your idea or opinion, and suddenly becomes defensive or just down right rude. Keep in mind, these start out as invited conversations, or public comments welcome type of scenarios.
I tend to think I like to find the cause of the problem or issue, and not simply throw money at the problem and think that’s going to make it better. When you address underlying issues, you may solve more problems than just the one you were discussing first, simply because so many things are interconnected and related, and you will begin to see the trickle-down effect. Bottom line, when you are in these situations, try to keep an open mind to other people’s ideas, and be willing to think outside the box, or textbook, to really solve problems.
My first topic shall discuss the reasons why there are occasional threats of a government shutdown, and how these situations are addressed. If you are not familiar with the cause of this issue, I will provide just a high level overview. Shutdowns are caused when the government runs out of money. It doesn’t really run out, but they determine this status by annual budgets. The lawmakers make the laws, but it’s up to other officials as to how to achieve those results. So when a bill passes that we will designate $20,000,000 for housing, it’s up to the senate appropriations committee to decide how we will fund that bill. They may choose to raise taxes, or they may reduce spending in other areas to accommodate this amount, among other options. As you may know, when the United States does not have enough funds to make this happen, we borrow from the World Bank, or other countries. This is known as our federal deficit.
In order to avoid a shutdown, the legislators need to agree on a spending budget. That doesn’t seem too complicated, does it? We need certain infrastructure, basic needs and other necessary items which we pay for with income taxes and the like. Unfortunately, while our legislators are elected to office to represent the people of the US and what we think we should spend money on, they also have their own priorities. To get what they want, they bundle things together. This is to obtain a compromise, which certainly sounds like what we want, and that the system is working. Although it sounds good in theory, it doesn’t work the way it should. Each side (democrats and republicans) want things they know the other side doesn’t want, and then the problems begin. They always try to hold out until the last minute before approving a spending bill which usually doesn’t accomplish a whole lot, and then we are back at square one when the next deadline comes. The deadlines are usually aligned with our payments due to the World Bank for our deficit funding.
You’re probably asking why I get ticked off about this. After all, I’m not in charge of spending, or appropriations, or taxes and such. I get pissed because I’m a taxpayer, and the people we elect don’t seem to have a good grasp on the fact that most taxpayers can’t afford more taxes, to fund things we don’t consider a priority. I feel we should be appropriating money in this country for our benefit first. We need affordable housing, food, decent paying jobs! No one should be homeless, and no child should be unfed! We are a first world country and we don’t take care of ourselves, before helping other countries. There should be no homeless veterans! Everyone should be able to get health care, without paying an outrageous out-of-pocket amount. So when neither side can reach an agreement because one side wants to send $20B to the Ukraine and $20B to Israel, I get pissed! These are HUGE amounts of money, that we don’t even have! There are lots of wealthy countries on this earth who aren’t helping, so everyone looks to us, and then we have senators saying “we have to send this money, or we look broke to the world.” No, instead we look like chumps! So we give Israel money to bomb Gaza, and then send humanitarian aid to Gaza! How can our lawmakers think this is the answer? Oh, and to appropriate the money for Ukraine, let’s cut social security. So now we will hurt our seniors and disabled folks in this country, to allow two other factions to fight each other! What’s worse is the media coverage of our lawmakers squabbling like school children on a playground! Each side badmouthing the other does not show the American public that our elected officials are doing what is expected of them, and fixing the problems, nationally or internationally! They ALL need a damn time-out!
Now let’s think about this a little further. What could we do in this country with $40 billion dollars? We could build a lot of subsidized and affordable housing, pump money in healthcare for more free preventative care, stock food shelves as well as increasing food benefits, fix our roads and bridges, increase public transportation options, add cell towers so no place is without coverage, and create more jobs paying a livable wage. I’m not saying altogether that we should not help other countries, but we shouldn’t hurt ourselves financially to do it! Offering expert assistance in diplomacy and spending instead our time to sit down with other world leaders to abolish war and terrorist cells would undoubtedly yield a better return on our investment.
The whole idea of this blog is not to solve the world’s problems, but instead to get people thinking of what’s really going on behind the scenes, and educating our up and coming young folks to help create meaningful change in our own little corner of the world.
Edmund Burke has been credited with saying, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Whether we like it or not, there really are evil people and people with evil intent in this world, and the good people need to step up our game if we are to flourish.