Time for the Soap Box

Ok - for those of you not interested in politics - stop reading now.  For those of you who know me, writing something about politics is rather unusual.  I can't stand politics.  That being said, for those of you who are brave enough, read on!

Since I only work 1 job now, I've been able to catch the news a little more often.  I still don't watch it religiously because I know how badly they can screw up stories from personal experience.  But I do watch so at least I have some clue as to what's going on in the world around me.  There has been one theme that has been sticking out to me in a not so good way.  Politics.  More specifically budget issues, be it on a state level or the federal level.

Here's where I get on my proverbial soap box.

Come on!!!  99.9% of the rest of the population of the U.S. would end up getting fired if we did half of the things that Congress has done - both here in Minnesota and on a Federal level.  If we don't get work done in time we don't get paid overtime to do it.  We get written up and potentially fired.  We can't turn around and tell the mortgage company, the car loan, the electricity, etc. that we don't have money to pay them so they just have to wait.  We can't tell them that we are delaying payments to them so we can pay other things because we can't figure out how to spend within our means.  What gives the government the right to do this?

Furthermore, why are we giving millions upon millions of dollars to aid other countries with there issues when we can't solve our own?  Don't get me wrong, I strongly believe in helping out those less fortunate than us.  But what happened to the less fortunate in OUR OWN COUNTRY?  Where are the millions upon millions to help them?  Why are we sending all of this money over seas when we can't figure out a national budget?  And why on God's green earth are we going to take money from the military to balance the budget if we can't figure it out any other way?  We are already underpaying our soldiers significantly and asking more of them than we do from almost anyone else in the country.

Let me give the federal government a hint - rewrite Medicare Part D!  If you read the Medicare Part D law language, the government cannot take into account how much a procedure costs when it decides whether to cover it or not.  I forget exactly how much it is, but Medicare Part D pays out somewhere in the BILLIONS of dollars in medical costs that, if it could take into account the cost effectiveness of the procedure/medication, it could be saving.  That would go a looooong ways toward balancing the national budget and paying down our debt.

Ok - soap box rant over.  I'll try for something more upbeat next time.  Perhaps back to The Bathroom Saga cuz, for those of you who have been following, that ain't over yet.