Issue #2 Spending What We Can Afford

The issue is the federal budget. This is a subject controlled both by the president and the congress. First, the president develops a budget that will then be sent to congress to be overviewed. This budget decides where the money will go and how much will go to each program. However, excessive spending is currently threatening our entitlements. Now congress has passed a bill that limits spending to a pay as you go basis. This plan may also be known as "paygo". This plan will limit the borrowing of money that is going on and will only allow the spending of money we already posses. A benefit of paygo is that it will cause congress to open their eyes to the deficits in the nation. The downfall of the paygo program is that people are believing that it will just cause taxes to go up and not bring a solution to the debt. They believe that deficits can be taken care of by economic growth. Also there is a fear that in a time of need the government will not be able to recieve the amount of money necessary.

I do not believe in pay go. I am not positive it will work and I don't feel as though the government should waste the time, effort and more money on a silly way out. More important than implementing a program, should be a close monitoring of the dumb places our tax dollars are being spent. How do we only spend the money that we have if we are in debt and have no money? There is no logic behind this plan. What about when we need the money? If there is a major catastrophe do we need to wait until we have enough money to deal with the situation. Until we have enough money do we just put the problem on the back burner and move on with our lives. I'm not saying we can continue the ridiculous amounts of spending that we are doing now, I am just stating that paygo is not a good program, loaning money is normal and necessary. Jim Horney is the Director of Federal Fiscal Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, where he specializes in federal budget issues. This is a man who dissagrees with the new plan.

Issue #1 War Dollars

Issue #3 Social Insecurity