ordnance11 Wrote:Rob, a government is not like a family. There some things a government does at minimum that families do not have:
1. A defense budget -
2. Social Security - You paid into it, and it's expected you will have to get something back out of it.
3. Services like Air traffic control
4. Embassies
5. Environmental protection
6. Workplace protection
7. Disease prevention, monitoring and control - like the CDC - Center for Disease Control or the Poison Control Center
So...which functions you would like to eliminate/gut? And sign a statement that you will take the blame for all the consequences that would ensue?
One could argue that "locks on the doors" counts as defense, "keeping the water running and the sewer lines clear" counts as environmental protection, and so on. Anyway.
The IMF would have you cut all of these and more, based on their austerity measures elsewhere. From what news reports leak out of the USA, it appears that the Republicans - or at least the Republicans who make the most noise - agree with this position. Yes, Foxboy has already replied to this, but what does that matter as long as the money's being paid back to the banks who hold the notes? (What? "Default on the loans?" Won't somebody think of the bankers?)
As for taking responsibility for the consequences, when was the last time any politician in any party in North America did that?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012