Earlier this week I read about presidential campaign fundraising goals for 2011. Some of the projected goals top a million dollars. If these guys (and gals) are so eager to raise funds for promoting their personal agendas, then maybe we should give them an offering plate to start passing around on behalf of the Federal Budget as well. Can you imagine the silence in the chambers of Congress if they all were staring at the plate looming before their eyes, dreading its arrival? What if we were to shave a mere $10,000 from the salaries of each Representative, and $15,000 from each Senator? Let's see...that would total to...$4,350,000 from the House, and...$1,500,000 from the Senate. There are almost 309 million residents in the US right now. What if we each gave $10? If my math is correct, then that would total to over 3 billion dollars. How much money are we trying to raise/save/stop spending again? That'd be a pretty good start. And then we could stop all new dog park construction for the year (I have nothing against dog parks. I just believe that they shouldn't be priority in a year of economic crisis). And what about the refurbishments throughout the corrections department of each state? Do our prisoners really need new refrigerators right now? Seeing things like these listed on my state's budget make me question the seriousness of our nation's crisis...or at least question the methods being used to "fix" it. I don't claim to be perfect, or to have all the answers. But with a little common sense and a fair amount of intelligence, I don't think our budget problem would be that difficult to solve. How would you modify the federal budget to cover the deficit?
