Just the Simple Truth, Please

What I'm wondering is: Who really knows?

Mitt Romney says he knows, and he is a Presidential candidate.

Paul Krugman says he knows, and he is an economist, a Nobel prize winning economist at that.

Paul Ryan, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Rand and Ron Paul all know, and they sound very sure.

Rush Limbaugh, has always known, and he has been telling us about it ad nauseum for years.

Glenn Beck knows and he has been drawing it on his blackboard, but there really is something loony about his frenetic style, so even if he knows, I'm not sure I can believe him.

So, are we spending too much in Washington?

Are we spending too much in New Hampshire?

I mean, is government spending too much?

Actually, I haven't seen the numbers, and I'm pretty sure if I did see them, they'd be too big and in too many categories and contained in too many graphs for me to actually understand. So I just have to believe other people. But who to believe?

Mitt, Mitch, John, Paul, Rush, Glenn all say we are and they thunder it, like the word of God coming down from the mountain, so they must know.

But little Paul Krugman sits at his computer at Princeton University and looks at numbers and he says, actually, we the government is spending too little, says government spending is actually a smaller part of the overall economy than it has been in decades, says we should have spent way more in that stimulus package and if we had we would've actually pulled out of the recession, rather than just wallowing toward the shore.

Money, economy, deficits, debt payments, really Social Security and Medicare are all about the numbers, aren't they? Until they become about the people affected by the numbers, or the candidates trying to get elected by the numbers.

So we are told to look at numbers and apply them to the complex government numbers they are fighting over down in Washington.

We got more going out than coming in.

Maybe, maybe not. But, for the sake of argument let's say, yes, more going out than coming in.

So what should we do about that?

If I have too little to cover expenses, especially fixed expenses, I typically look for another job, a contract, some more income.

But for the government, that means taxes, fees, "income enhancement."

And for Mitt, Rand, Ron, Rush, Mitch and John, that "Tax" word is a four letter word they dare not speak.

Even closing "tax loop holes" is an anathema for these boys. Loop holes which allow you to deduct a corporate jet (because, as Mitt tells us corporations are people) or allows you to buy a Ford Expedition and deduct it as a business expense if you are a doctor--but you could not deduct your Honda Civic (go figure.)

So the Republicans are like those people who are starving but their religion forbids them to eat sacred cows, so they cannot take action to save themselves or their people. Except for the Republicans, it's sacred cows, chickens, hogs, corn, wheat, soy and fish. You just cannot touch anything to help save yourself if that anything is "Taxes."