seems like someone would be able to figure this one out...

the budget "process" is upon us yet again. i feel like george carlin when he observes that everything is a situation. we know that it's an emergency, but everything is a situation. and the budget process is pretty much in the same boat. we know it's a process. it's the budget. but it's completely farsical. the notion that anything of genuine value is going to take place is virtually impossible. of the freshman republicans who helped bring about the revolution of '94, only one of them has actually proposed spending "cuts" not just "decreases." The very language that we use to describe the legislation that surrounds the budgets is ridiculous. A spending decrease is called a cut by those on the left and spending increases proposed by Republicans are supposed to be taken at face value because at least they aren't as big as they would have under the Democrats. That's just ridiculous. Ridiculous. I can't even tell you how ridiculous this whole situation is. But I am especially angered by the Republican's reluctance to seriously reign in federal spending. I do think that it is time for the federal government to adopt policies that many of the states have--spending can never grow faster than inflation and any surplus is split between a rainy day fund and either immediate rebate checks or reductions to the tax schedule. If there's a deficit, all non-defense and homeland security funding is immediately cut by whatever percentage necessary to eliminate that deficit. We have the technology, we have the capability, we should be able to adjust federal spending in a logical, technical manner that actually makes sense. Why not simply reverse the budget process and wait until the total taxes for a given fiscal year are collected and then figure out how much is available to be spent and aim to spend less--not simply to reduce the size of government, but to make it more efficient and to leaner.
Then again, who ever heard of Rome?