There is an old saying about being "penny wise and pound foolish." This saying certainly applies to the Congressional budget super committee. The time is rapidly running out for this committee to come out with $1.2 trillion of budget cuts in the next 10 years. If they cannot, then automatic cuts kick in with half of them coming out of the Pentagon budget and other national security programs. My guess is we will get the automatic cuts.
More than a trillion dollars of cuts in the next 10 years may sound like a lot, but let's consider the budget of just one federal department, the Department of Education.
This department consumes $105 billion per year. If the department were abolished it would mean a savings of more than $1 trillion in the next 10 years.
This department was established without constitutional authority, the word "education" appears nowhere in the constitution.
It was promoted to cabinet level status under President Jimmy Carter in 1979.
It does nothing to further the education of our kids, but merely serves to feed a bloated federal bureaucracy. The guys who sent men to the moon were educated before there was a Department of Education. Now we don't even have the means to get an American into space, We have to hitch a ride with the Russians. We get no benefit from this department, but the super committee will not even consider eliminating it. They are too busy grasping for pennies to save.
Steve Ball
Gilbert
Leon Ceniceros posted at 7:40 pm on Thu, Nov 17, 2011.
Wow, what a great idea. I can hear the "gnashing of teeth" from the Liberal-Progressive-Socialist-Democrats already.....lol. The only difference between Jimmy Carter and Barack Hussein Obama...is that Jimmy Carter was afraid of flying....[wink]
Dale Whiting posted at 4:30 am on Fri, Nov 18, 2011.
That's my guess, too. The super committee was doomed from inception, But where those like Leon decry elevation of the Department of Education by Carter, let's not forget "No Child Left Behind" perhaps a flawed approach to a neary national problem, was a Conservative approach by George W. Bush. It does not take brains to realize that educational standards vary widely from state to state and school district to school district. And free public education has been a component of what being an American had meant since the late 19th Century.
Does not being mentioned in the Constitution make something unconstitutional? If so, then let's float around an amendment. If not, then let's get to work making the Department of Education's efforts to raise educational standard nation wide become successful. Otherwise, we waist not only money, but the future of our nation!
Accuracy posted at 11:36 am on Fri, Nov 18, 2011.
“Super committee looking to save pennies, not billions” . . . But the House of Representatives (lawmakers) are preparing to vote on a constitutional amendment to balance the budget.
Republicans view the measure as the only way to force Congress to get its financial affairs in order after years of massive deficits.
But President Obama and the leadership of the Democratic Party are against the amendment, even though the move to take a vote was part of this year's agreement to raise the federal government's debt ceiling.
The proposed constitutional amendment to balance the budget would bust economy, even though it would not take effect until 2017 or two years after it's ratified.
PatrioticPerson posted at 4:43 pm on Fri, Nov 18, 2011.
How much of that $105 billion actually goes to the school districts to support educating our young people?
PatrioticPerson posted at 4:47 pm on Fri, Nov 18, 2011.
Most people knew that the Super Committee was doomed from the start but it did give us a slight glimmer of hope that something good would happen in Washington....................so much for that hope! Now for the Change in 2012.
PatrioticPerson posted at 4:52 pm on Fri, Nov 18, 2011.
It was just announced that the Balanced Budget Amendment has failed in the House.