Congressional penny drive

Let me get this straight. Congress has debated the proposed 2011 budget off and on since submitted in February of 2010. And in April of 2011 – two months after they should have started working on the 2012 budget – they’re into their 14th month of haggling over how much to spend in 2011.

To forestall a government shutdown for just the next two weeks, Congress came to an emergency agreement to cut $38.5 billion of the proposed $3.83 trillion budget for 2011. And after much partisan rhetoric, character bashing, and grandstanding, they could only agree to save you and me this abysmally paltry amount – representing less than 48 minutes worth of federal spending – if it was spread over the next six years.

It’s painfully obvious that the vast majority of Congress – regardless of political stripe – who’ve been around more than one term, are so conjoined with their own special interests and monetary mistresses, that cutting funding for any of them is like contemplating major surgery without the benefit of anesthesia.

Joe Booth

Spokane