Understanding #Austerity?

Understanding spending versus not spending? (simplified)

The meaning of austerity in government, is implementing policy to reduce its deficit.  Austerity measures are used when deficit (amount owed) becomes unsustainable and a government is unable to borrow, in order to finance and/or pay for further spending.  

Austerity is a combination of tax increases and spending cuts.  Often, welfare costs also need to be cut.  This includes cutting the ever-increasing burden of social service programs, a proverbial money pit.  Budget objectives that include cutting social programs are often viewed as being politically unpopular, by many liberal people.

When is your country’s debt your responsibility?

Fiscally conservative advocates would argue that government should always run a balanced budget (and have a surplus to pay down any outstanding debt).  They may also add that deficit spending is always bad policy.  When one looks at a plan to cut spending, no one wants to feel the pain.  

In the U.S. it seems there are many people who feel okay with the idea of paying more tax, but so far the government has made no attempt to cut back on spending.  Therefore, tax payers may feel there is no obvious effort to adjust to what some may refer to as reality, aka uninhibited spending.  So why give more of your hard-earned cash to the government - for continued spending - without any measures in place, to reduce this uninhibited spending?

A balanced budget?

I read this extract in an article via sfgate.com:

Fresh from passing the 2013 wrap-up measure, the Senate was turning to a plan by new Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash., that would add nearly $1 trillion in new taxes over the coming decade in an attempt to stabilize the $16 trillion-plus national debt.

But Murray's plan would actually increase government spending after the $1.2 trillion cost of repealing the automatic cuts, called a sequester in Washington-speak. That means the net cuts to the deficit would amount to just a few hundred billion dollars in a federal budget estimated at $46 trillion or so over the coming decade."We need to tackle our deficit and debt fairly and responsibly,"

Murray said. "We need to keep the promises we've made as a nation to our seniors, our families and our communities." 

Patty Murray says the people voted for the president, and therefore people don’t want any cuts. 

No cuts? 

Only a tax burden that continually increases for loyal taxpaying citizens? What do you think?

I am ‘hopeful’ that the people managing the business of America will decide to think, and begin to work to create a ‘balanced budget’, with the appropriate adjustments needed in order for us to arrive at a more optimistic future. 

Perhaps they could begin by trying to eliminate all the populist emotion around this topic.  A good idea may be to review and ensure that the U.S. does not emulate France.  Politicians require vision and strength to help the U.S. regain its status as the land of the free, where the American Dream can be achieved once more... a status that other nations have traditionally aspired to match!