tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19733180.post1125166796961245993..comments2024-03-24T07:56:33.811-05:00Comments on Allan R. Bevere: Are Budgets Really Moral Documents?Allan R. Beverehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07903011101108437513noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19733180.post-15513558713569092162011-03-12T12:07:49.234-05:002011-03-12T12:07:49.234-05:00Gary, good points.
I certainly do believe that a ...Gary, good points.<br /><br />I certainly do believe that a budget reveals moral commitments, but what bothers me is that one side accuses the other of things that the other side simply does not embrace. Liberals accuse conservatives of hating children when they want to cut certain social programs, when conservatives have their own ideas, rightly or wrongly, on how to take care of society's vulnerable children. Conservatives accuse liberals of being weak on security and not caring about the defense of a nation's people because they want to cut the defense budget, when liberals, rightly or wrongly, believe that security can be had for much less money.<br /><br />The point is that the argument should be about the substance of what to cut and why, not using the moral document argument to accuse the other side of being immoral.<br /><br />By the way, one's own personal checkbook reveals one's moral commitments as well.Allan R. Beverehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07903011101108437513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19733180.post-66679133495343293632011-03-12T09:54:52.284-05:002011-03-12T09:54:52.284-05:00A comment. In my conversations with people and my ...A comment. In my conversations with people and my own reading, I have heard people all along the politican spectrum speak of the budget as a moral docuument. And I've seen many times where one side speaks of a budget as the moral document and the other side agrees with that assessment. Of course, as you state Allan, that is where the difference begin to emerge based on the perspective of each.Gary Lynnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19733180.post-44765988881902553782011-03-10T19:09:40.090-05:002011-03-10T19:09:40.090-05:00I think that we have done the same old thing for s...I think that we have done the same old thing for so long that we have forgotten how make new and different priorities. I do not think it is vague to say that everyone in the USA should have enough to live a modest life including basic needs. For the most part, we are not far off of that goal. There are multiple ways to achieve the goal. The first issue that we never seem to grasp is that we have to have the political will to make changes. That we do not have. All the ways to make changes have been heard before. Make the government efficient by reducing redundant programs. Go after fraud. Simplify the tax code to close loopholes and use a graduated rate based upon income. One half of all SS payments made by individuals and employers on behalf of employees should be guaranteed to return to that individual worker or spouse. The other half would be used for other SS benefits. Consider a national sales tax on selected luxury items. End the regressive tax practice of capping SS payments on high incomes. The wealthy should not receive this break. Freeze most spending at current levels. I think people might be more willing to pay higher taxes if they knew that the money was being used to reduce debt. Most people do not want to give more money to be mishandled and misused. The fed. Gov. is too big. A political solution to this problem should begin with a goal of reducing gov. by 10%. How do we force the congress to sit down and rationally go through a process to do this? I do not know. There are many minds much brighter than mine that can sort out better ways to do this. One thing that I think should happen is to place some sort of controls on prices for industries that are out of control. There is no reason for healthcare costs to have climbed this high over this length of time. And I do not think that we should pay high prices for gas everytime there is a hiccup in the middle east. More drilling in the US and building coal gasification plants are needed now. Allan, I have never thought that you did not care for the poor. You have always recognized the profound complexity of the problems we face and the confusion between being moved by someones plight and turning that into a national priority. Your point is well taken. The biggiest move to make is to carefully study our wealth and where it resides. Where did it reside 100 years ago. Bring that forward decade by decade. Look at the patterns. Is there a range of wealth distribution that seems healthiest for the nation? If we can determine that range, can we set goals for our economy to achieve that mix? Does this step interfere too much with a healthy capitalist economy? How do we know? If I were a multimillioniare today, I would not want to give the gov. one more nickle due to the failure of gov to be good stewards of money. But I would want to contribute to the welfare and success of the society. I do that now in a variety of ways, but my economic impact is quite tiny.Brucenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19733180.post-59586248025914620392011-03-10T17:41:38.842-05:002011-03-10T17:41:38.842-05:00Bruce,
I have no doubt that as a society we can d...Bruce,<br /><br />I have no doubt that as a society we can do better, but when people say things like we should be able to care for our young and our old, I find that to be vague. So how do we take care of our young and our old?<br /><br />Don't get me wrong... I believe in caring for "the least of these" but saying a wealthy society should be able to do that, and actually working through the complexities as to how to do that is another thing.<br /><br />What do you think?Allan R. Beverehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07903011101108437513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19733180.post-33543643730529553592011-03-10T10:55:27.189-05:002011-03-10T10:55:27.189-05:00As usual Allan, you point out where we confuse our...As usual Allan, you point out where we confuse ourselves with simplistic slogans. You also rightly point out that context is a major key in moral decision making. One of the ways I think about our current debate is to consider all the wealth or assets in the USA, consider the debt, and then consider basic needs like food, shelter, a degree of healthcare. It seems to me that the greatest wealth producing nation in the history of the world should be able to care for the young and old. If we cannot develop the political will to care for our most vulnerable citizens, then no budget will be moral. It took decades to get here and it may take time to get out of our current situation. What is unfortunate is that nobody is offering any serious solutions to the problem as it exists.Brucenoreply@blogger.com