House Speaker Ongoing Melodrama

[Belsnickel]

(10-25-2023, 12:23 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: I think people are disillusioned with the government and thus elect people who are either hostile to it or atypical for the office.  I also can't say I blame them.  This is more recent, but how many struggling families could have their mortgages paid off with the money sent to Ukraine?  How many people who can afford a monthly mortgage payment but can't buy a house for lack of a down payment could have been assisted in purchasing their first home?  How many people with crippling credit card debt could have received significant relief?  How about the victims of the Maui fire?

I'm not saying aiding Ukraine isn't important, but it's not hard to see how a struggling citizenry can look at that kind of cash being shipped overseas and be bitter as hell about it.

The problem with the conversation around budget issues is that the Democrats tend to only focus on increasing taxes on corporations and the wealthy and Republicans want to only slash discretionary non-defense spending. Neither of these things are sustainable options. You could eliminate all discretionary non-defense spending and still be in a deficit. Our deficit was, $1.7 trillion, while non-defense discretionary spending is less than $1 trillion, and even when you add Ukraine aid to that it doesn't break $1 trillion (that aid is defense spending because we send stuff from our stockpiles and then replenish it).

No one wants to do what needs to be done.