Congressman Chuck Fleischmann sent out his own youtube.com video to explain the national debt and the need for fiscal responsibility:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oDVg9DQUalg
In just under two minutes he made this point:
2/3 of the budget is based on mandatory spending programs, and that’s way too much. The government should run the budget like good Americans run theirs.
Oddly enough, 2/3 of the average household budget is mandatory as well*:
Major Household Expenses Share (%) of income
Housing 34.1
Transportation 17.6
Food 5.4
Insurance & Pensions 10.8
Medical expenses 5.7
Total 73.6
The numbers don’t include income tax payments, payment on high-interest debts, car loans or home equity loans. Note that only 1%, more or less, goes to personal care, tobacco and alcohol and, sadly only 0.2% goes to reading.
Some expenditures are investments, like education costs. We should talk about education, too. Chuck did not mention that. Nor did he mention that if he cuts SNAP programs, the ones that feed women, infants and children, he is then sending children to school ill-prepared to learn because they’re hungry, and hungry kids get distracted by that. He also cuts Head Start, the program with a track record of achievement.
Chuck did not mention that there is a direct relationship between poverty and poor performance in school. With 23% of the nation’s children living in poverty (27% in his district), I wonder if he sees the connection between hunger, poor academic performance, drop out rates, incarceration rates, the cost of, for lack of a better word, caring for the incarcerated.
I wonder if he sees a link between poverty and hospital costs, most notably in overtaxed emergency rooms (in those hospitals the cuts have not yet been forced to close).
He might have overlooked that among the largest budget items are defense expenditures, Now, to be fair, some of that is coming down as we extricate ourselves from two disastrous and very expensive, not to say meaningless and fruitless, wars. The new budget reflects our new peaceful environment yet still spends over four times what China spends on its military, and more than the next 15 nations spend combined – who, by the way, are our allies.
Certainly he did not consider that our 3,000 plus fighter planes are more than a match for any other nation’s, and that we’re still building more at $29-57 MILLION per plane. Or, that the US military has recently graduated more drone pilots than fighter pilots. He is silent about the number of tanks we’re building that will never see battle because massive ground scale wars have become obsolete. He has said nothing about the generals' openly stating they don't want them. Strange, isn't it?
I ask you, my fellow American, “Do you see something wrong with spending over $35,000/year to keep a body in prison while spending only a fraction of that for their education, nurturing of body, mind and spirit while they're young?
Did Chuck tell you, ‘cause he didn’t tell me, that the trends of the major nations, third world nations among them, is toward the nurturing, growth and development of their children. Did he tell you that by 2020, China and India will have more college graduates with STEM degrees than the US has people? I guess he hasn’t.
Before you lend this guy an ear, understand that he is not your friend; he is not working for you; and, he will continue to not work for you. His future is aligned with people who are not you. You’d better find one who is for you and work like the dickens to get her into office.
Joe Malgeri
Citizen
jmalgeri@gmail.com
I posted this also to my blog: jmalgeri@blogspot.com
Oddly enough, you could use this article as a template. Remove Chuck Fleischmann’s name, enter your own Congressman’s, and be pretty sure that what is written will apply.
*Source:
http://budgeting.thenest.com/average-american-household-budget-4385.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oDVg9DQUalg
In just under two minutes he made this point:
2/3 of the budget is based on mandatory spending programs, and that’s way too much. The government should run the budget like good Americans run theirs.
Oddly enough, 2/3 of the average household budget is mandatory as well*:
Major Household Expenses Share (%) of income
Housing 34.1
Transportation 17.6
Food 5.4
Insurance & Pensions 10.8
Medical expenses 5.7
Total 73.6
The numbers don’t include income tax payments, payment on high-interest debts, car loans or home equity loans. Note that only 1%, more or less, goes to personal care, tobacco and alcohol and, sadly only 0.2% goes to reading.
Some expenditures are investments, like education costs. We should talk about education, too. Chuck did not mention that. Nor did he mention that if he cuts SNAP programs, the ones that feed women, infants and children, he is then sending children to school ill-prepared to learn because they’re hungry, and hungry kids get distracted by that. He also cuts Head Start, the program with a track record of achievement.
Chuck did not mention that there is a direct relationship between poverty and poor performance in school. With 23% of the nation’s children living in poverty (27% in his district), I wonder if he sees the connection between hunger, poor academic performance, drop out rates, incarceration rates, the cost of, for lack of a better word, caring for the incarcerated.
I wonder if he sees a link between poverty and hospital costs, most notably in overtaxed emergency rooms (in those hospitals the cuts have not yet been forced to close).
He might have overlooked that among the largest budget items are defense expenditures, Now, to be fair, some of that is coming down as we extricate ourselves from two disastrous and very expensive, not to say meaningless and fruitless, wars. The new budget reflects our new peaceful environment yet still spends over four times what China spends on its military, and more than the next 15 nations spend combined – who, by the way, are our allies.
Certainly he did not consider that our 3,000 plus fighter planes are more than a match for any other nation’s, and that we’re still building more at $29-57 MILLION per plane. Or, that the US military has recently graduated more drone pilots than fighter pilots. He is silent about the number of tanks we’re building that will never see battle because massive ground scale wars have become obsolete. He has said nothing about the generals' openly stating they don't want them. Strange, isn't it?
I ask you, my fellow American, “Do you see something wrong with spending over $35,000/year to keep a body in prison while spending only a fraction of that for their education, nurturing of body, mind and spirit while they're young?
Did Chuck tell you, ‘cause he didn’t tell me, that the trends of the major nations, third world nations among them, is toward the nurturing, growth and development of their children. Did he tell you that by 2020, China and India will have more college graduates with STEM degrees than the US has people? I guess he hasn’t.
Before you lend this guy an ear, understand that he is not your friend; he is not working for you; and, he will continue to not work for you. His future is aligned with people who are not you. You’d better find one who is for you and work like the dickens to get her into office.
Joe Malgeri
Citizen
jmalgeri@gmail.com
I posted this also to my blog: jmalgeri@blogspot.com
Oddly enough, you could use this article as a template. Remove Chuck Fleischmann’s name, enter your own Congressman’s, and be pretty sure that what is written will apply.
*Source:
http://budgeting.thenest.com/average-american-household-budget-4385.html
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