Nothing makes you feel more connected with the nation as a whole than April 15th, when we all eagerly dig deep and declare — in dollars and cents — just how profound is our love of all things American. And so, as I sit here with EZ and not-so-EZ forms, this article was a great diversion.
Because really, now.
As our local town squabbles over two cents on the dollar in the school budget and smart and genuinely concerned people argue endlessly over which local services must be reduced in order to deal with the permanent shortfalls in funding, there seems to be no real perspective on the golem that is the federal budget. Spending to the tune of $650bn on defense alone, the money that goes into the black hole known as DC is really a much more significant drain — and yet, it seems infinitely easier to point a finger at the “overpaid” elementary school teacher than the Pentagon or the bank bailout or any of the countless federal “services” that really aren’t serving anybody but the pigs at the trough…
I’m thrilled to learn that some local officials are starting to push back — not with stupid teabonic antics over Obama’s “socalism” (if only), but with efforts to educate their citizens about the completely warped economic model that is eroding our communities: while we hack away at day-to-day services to make ends meet, the wizards in DC (yes, Obama, that’s you) have been free to spend lavishly on TARP and Afghanistan and countless other embarrassing non-productive and massively expensive endeavors. As long as they can pass the tab along to us (and our children) they seem untroubled by their frivolous spending — meanwhile, we’re admonished to tighten our belt, make due with less, and volunteer more to make it all work right here in town.
Something is really rotten, and it’s not in the state of Denmark..
