A Nation Divided By Politics

This article describes the budget proposals being developed by the Republican controlled House.  It includes huge cuts in the SEC which regulates the security markets, and the IRS which is responsible for enforcing tax policy.  It also includes big cuts to the EPA which is responsible for protecting the environment.  The easiest way to describe the House budget is that it is against everything that the president that we elected if for.  The House budget will not pass in the Senate but is shows the enormous value gap that exists in our nation.  The Republican members of the House were elected by the people in their districts.  Their budget reflects the values of the citizens that elected them.  Those values have been carefully honed over the last decade or two by the folks who created the Tea Party.

Nothing reflects the values and the intentions of a government more than what it chooses to spend the tax revenue that it collects, and from whom it chooses to collect the revenue.  The battle over the budget is really a battle about our value system.  The Republican party has made a conscious decision to magnify and exploit the minor differences in values that are typical in any country.  This has turned us against each other and it is making our country ungovernable.  Its motto should be "divided we stand and divided we fall".

We should also remember that large cuts in government spending were originally advocated by the GOP as the way to reduce the federal budget deficit.  The federal budget deficit has been shrinking along with our recovery from the recession.  It is pretty clear that the real intention of their proposed spending cuts is to shape government in their image.  It has little to do with fiscal responsibility.