Two things are certain in life...

Here's a very interesting post:

http://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/happy-tax-day/

An accountant (who is also a self-confessed gun nut and a successful sci-fi author, which is how I know him) talks about the current budget situation.

My own take: we need to amputate federal spending.

Amputate?

Well, 'cuts' are small, right? Amputations have a tendency to be larger.

Amputation is usually rather drastic, isn't it?

Yeah, only done in life-or-death situations. I still say: amputate.

Cutting thirty-odd billion is a drop in the bucket. That's less than 1% of our budget. We're spending over 150% of what we earned in FY2010. We need to amputate ONE THIRD of Federal spending. ONE THIRD. If Federal spending were a person, that'd be both its legs. Amputate.

Oh, and cutting a third of the budget? That'd just mean things aren't getting any worse. To actually pay off the debt would mean cutting even more.

My proposal? Cut half, across the board. Every federal agency, without exception, will have its budget halved and must lay off half its work force. Yes, that includes the military. Half of our serving personnel are going to be discharged. Every subsidy, every program, every grant, halved.

I'd love to be more selective, but we don't have time. We're on a train heading at full speed for a cliff edge. We need to put the breaks on now, hard, and pray we don't jackknife. The fall WILL kill us. Putting on the breaks WILL hurt... but we MAY survive.

An across-the-board cut is also the only way I see to get past the debate. I'd like to eliminate the entire TSA - lock, stock, and groping. But I'd never get half of Congress to agree to that. Meanwhile, they'd like to cut federal rail subsidies I'd like to see raised. The only way to make the cuts 'fair' is to make it clear we're cutting EVERYTHING.

Yeah. We're cutting the legs off the federal government. The patient might not survive the surgery. However we can be absolutely sure they'll bleed to death if we DON'T amputate. Any decent doctor would know what to do. Cut... and pray.