The Obama administration will likely face a fierce fight over the $17 billion in budget cuts it proposed today – but don't think for a moment that this is where the real action is on the federal budget.
The programs President Obama wants to cut may well deserve to go, or not. (You can read the list and decide for yourself). But as people in Washington start arguing over this, there are two things worth keeping in mind:
- Whoever said "don't sweat the small stuff" was clearly not part of the federal budget process. First off, $17 billion is a lot of money, and we ought to save it if we can. But in a total budget of $3.5 trillion, it doesn't amount to much. That won't, of course, prevent anyone from fighting over it.
The fact is that Congress and the White House spend most of their time arguing over the smallest sections of the federal budget. The federal government spends most of its money on just a few items, like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and defense. And in the long run, it's the "entitlement programs" like Medicare and Social Security that are the real problem. As the baby boomers retire and health care costs mount, these are the programs that really threaten to bust the budget. But they're also the hardest to fix politically.
- The real budget battle will be over health care. The Obama administration has essentially made a huge fiscal bet on health care reform. It's chosen to set aside Social Security, arguing with some justification that Medicare is the bigger problem, and that controlling health care costs is fundamental to controlling Medicare.
Fair enough, but it does raise the stakes for the health care debate – not that those stakes needed to be any higher. Rising health care costs are a huge burden to business and individuals as well as the government, not to mention the fact that millions of Americans are uninsured. But if Washington can't come up with a health reform plan that's more cost-effective than our current system, it's hard to see how we're going to get a grip on the federal budget and our spiraling national debt.
Right now we've still got choices for dealing with our fiscal problems. If we miss our chance now, however, our options as a nation are going to get narrower and narrower, until, like so many homeowners today, our debts decide our future.
Re: A Small Slice Of The Pie
Since President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first term, the first 100 days of a new administration have been a benchmark for measuring the intentions and efficiency of an incoming president. Obama's 100th day in office was April 29, 2009. In his first post-election interview with Minutes, Obama said that he has been studying Roosevelt's first 100 days. Even with real problems to deal with, some people just can't put the payday lending dispute on the backburner. South Carolina lawmakers decided to cancel the payday lending dispute altogether, by rejecting a bill capping payday loans to 25% of a borrowers' monthly income or $500 (lowest of the two). Consumer advocates hate it, as they want to see the practice of payday lending done away with altogether. Many of them would doubtless give all kinds of installment loans to end the payday lending dispute in their favor.
Re: A Small Slice Of The Pie
yes we all knows medicare one of the bigger problem, so if get successive steps for health cost it would automatic helpful to control medical cost but over the battle budget interesting to watch how gone be control.
Condos Florida