{"id":208,"date":"2011-04-06T15:56:34","date_gmt":"2011-04-06T15:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/?p=208"},"modified":"2011-04-06T16:00:47","modified_gmt":"2011-04-06T16:00:47","slug":"the-essential-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/2011\/04\/06\/the-essential-question\/","title":{"rendered":"The essential question"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2011\/OPINION\/04\/06\/haskins.ryan.budget\/index.html\">post from a CNN correspondent<\/a> nicely summarizes the debate over the role of government and what the budget needs to cover:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>To take just one example, as recently as 1962 the federal government  spent only $29 billion on programs for poor and low-income Americans; in  2010 the federal government spent $789 billion on these and similar  programs, a 27-fold increase. This example could be multiplied,  especially with reference to retirement programs, health programs,  education programs and federal regulations.<\/p>\n<p>Liberals regard this  outpouring of spending and expansion of government authority as a  triumph; conservatives and libertarians regard both as excessive. Worse,  they think the programs give too many people what they should work for  themselves, thereby reducing individual initiative and down-sizing the  American vision.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Like so many half-full, half empty issues in life what is the example you use to understand this issue &#8211; an individual who lives in poverty and does not have reasonable opportunities to escape or the individual who has learned to play the system. While I understand the cost, I don&#8217;t see how cutting the budget provides solutions to poverty, health care, or education. I guess I must be a liberal, but I don&#8217;t see the value in describing spending money to meet genuine needs as a triumph. I would describe it as a responsibility. How are the important equity needs of the country going to be met? The deficit is a problem because of the refusal to generate a reasonable tax structure. It is not a problem without a solution.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Maybe some folks just don&#8217;t care &#8211; I have mine and that is all that matters. Is that really all there is to the explanation?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post from a CNN correspondent nicely summarizes the debate over the role of government and what the budget needs to cover: To take just one example, as recently as 1962 the federal government spent only $29 billion on programs &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/2011\/04\/06\/the-essential-question\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions\/211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningaloud.com\/curmudgeonspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}