Spending What We Can Afford

Unfortunately, budget deficits have become a very common thing and ultimately, they lead to economic stress and unease among Americans. America is so far into debt right now that no one is really sure what we should do. Of course there have been several ideas proposed but like any other debate, each idea's positive is accompanied by it's drawback. President Bush tried to fix the budget by issuing temporary tax cuts. However, these have expired now. Congress's solution to too much spending was issuing a pay-as-you-go budgeting rule (aka "paygo"). Basically, we will spend only what we can pay for. This also requires a balance between entitlement spending and other spending reductions. People supporting this measure also say that if the recession gets too out of control, it can always be suspended. People opposed to paygo spending believe it will just make voters angry, hurt them, and upset the economy. They say that economic growth is the key to eliminating deficits, not by increasing taxes and cutting programs.

In my opinion, I don't think pay-as-you-go budgeting is the solution to our huge national debt. If we're always paying for things now, when will there be time to actually work on cutting the debt? It seems like a rather temporary solution to a problem that's haunted us for quite awhile now. The tax increases and program cuts and other such measure that would be required just don't seem worth it now. People are frustrated and getting tired of our poor economy and they will only get more angry at the government if we are forced to pay more! John McCain also withdrew his support for paygo in the Senate by voting against it.

http://media.townhall.com/Townhall/Car/b/varv06092009a20090609051258.jpg (picture link)

Other issues:
War Dollars: http://roseyerickson.blogspot.com/2011/02/war-dollars.html
Social Insecurity: http://boesen-boesen.blogspot.com/2011/02/issue-3-social-insecurity.html