Everyone rails against “unnecessary” and “excessive” government spending, including Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, and also the Tea Party and Freedom Works protest groups.
But dare to cut any particular state or district’s favorite programs or “earmarks”, and suddenly governors, senators, congressmen, and ordinary citizens bitterly complain!
Don’t cut the space program in Florida! Don’t diminish agricultural subsidies in Iowa! Don’t look for cost savings on military spending in Texas! Don’t dare to suggest that there must be long range cuts in entitlement programs, such as Social Security and Medicare! Don’t force a state or city into a crisis on crime prevention or education or health services! In other words, DON’T CUT anything except other programs elsewhere! 🙂
It is certainly obvious that this is the major problem in the budget process–that no one wants their programs or services cut, only others, and that goes around all fifty states and all members of Congress and all governors!
So we hear over and over again that we must cut spending, and yet there is no way to do so, without antagonizing and alienating different interest groups and voters and political leaders!
So the never ending problem: Government spending must be cut, but yet it cannot be in a reasonable way. Therefore, there is an hypocrisy about “excessive” government spending, and it not limited to just one group, but ALL groups and both political parties! 🙁