L'shanah Tovah

I guess as evidence of the significant influence Hebrew thought has upon this nation, we are at the turning of both the Jewish Year and the Federal fiscal year.

Interesting thing about this fiscal year change:
There is currently not an approved budget. Though a single party controls both houses of Congress and the executive branch (suggesting it would be much easier to push through your legislative agenda) no one is particularly willing to give up their pet financial projects. There is much debate over who has to give up what if we are going to reduce taxes (though the reality of those cuts should be discussed) while we increase military spending.

So they passed stop gap measures to keep the government running. (Back in the 90's when Republicans took control of Congress for the first time in decades, they attempted to shut down the Federal government by withholding budget approval- turns out most people like the Federal government when they realize their taxes actually go to so called "goods and services"- this was a very unpopular move). These measures simply provide funding for Federal government programs despite the absence of a budget. So this means they have temporary funding while they are technically unfunded- with me so far?

Not every Federal agency is unfunded. National parks, and Congress itself managed to get spending measures enacted for the next fiscal year. Phew! But about ten other measures were missed. So to avoid a shut down of, say a Veteran's hospital, or the Coast Guard, or ending death benefits to families of dead military the stop gap resolution maintains temporary funding at current levels unless a lower spending level has already, though tentatively been approved. Now what types of programs do you suppose would have lower spending levels? Programs that will help poor old people buy heating fuel this winter for one. Whatever- Like old people ever die from weather extremes anyway- and what are the odds of oil prices going up this winter anyway?

Why does this matter? Well theses cuts have come about without Congressional approval. These are proposed cuts. They haven't been approved because A.) the Senate has been busy and B.) these are unpopular cuts. Like I said most people like the Federal government and don't want the cuts; when you connect a fiscal decision to real life, people get a bit squeamish. That is, it's one thing to campaign on lower taxes and fiscal "restraint." It's quite another to slap food out of grandma's mouth, or take real people off dialysis machines, or leave cops unpaid, or not inspect incoming shipping containers, or put someone's education on hold because their federal grant is gone. Congress has not approved these cuts, but the spending levels will go down as if they had.

One senator in particular found this particularly unconstitutional, or immoral, or disgusting, or politically stupid. Whatever it was, he suggested the measure be amended to not reduce spending in these particular categories. Now, if that was going to happen, the House would have to come back together and they had already left for the weekend. This is a typical practice of the House. Do something potentially unpopular and leave town, or save the really unsavory practices and report releases for late on Thursdays and Fridays so they can skip town and the media, who are looking forward to the weekend just like everyone else, don't pay particular attention.

So today, community service block grants, for example, have 50% less funding because it was too much to ask the House to come back. And even though it's 90 degrees here in Southern California today, it's already freezing in the Midwest and maybe grandpa can afford to heat his house, and maybe he can't. Maybe he'll pay for gas and forgo a meal or two. These things clearly are not important enough to ask the House to come back and discuss.

You know what the House did find important enough to come back into town for recently? You want to know what was so important that representatives came racing back into town to get their names in the Record, despite the Easter holiday? Terry [expletive] Schiavo.

I don't expect any government to be the church. I don't expect a representative government to be any better than the people it represents. But bad is bad, even when it comes from people you expect to be bad.

This isn't about Republicans or Democrats- it's about people for whom power over other's lives is nothing.

In the turning of the Jewish year, one is supposed to be acutely aware of one's sin and anticipate the work of God that atones for that and makes possible a better future. Maybe we should connect some dots.