Spending What we Can Afford

It seems like overspending shouldn't be a huge problem for our government. It's really quite simple; don't spend more than you take in. That's a long process when dealing with an entire country instead of just a family or business. First, the president creates a budget plan that acts as a possible guide for Congress when they make final decisions about spending. When Congress takes over, they must authorize and then appropriate. That means they pass an authorization bill to state rules and guidelines, and then they pass an appropriations bill to actually give the money to the stated agency. Using these bills, things should ultimately line up so the country doesn't create deficit. That's when outlays exceed revenues. When deficit happens not all programs receive proper funding, such as Social Security or Medicare. To prevent this from happening, some people support the "paygo" method. This method is very self explanatory, you just pay as you go. So as money is collected, then the government can pay for things. People who are against "paygo" believe that it encourages tax raises on Americans, which will hurt people and end up hurting the economy even more.

Vocab:
appropriations bill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriations_bill
deficit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deficit

I support "paygo" because it is what this country truly needs right now. It doesn't make sense for the government to be allowed to spend more than they take in when families and businesses don't have that luxury as well. The government should be the foundation and should lead by example when handling money. Sometimes what the government spends money on isn't even needed. If we get rid of the wasteful spending, just think how much money will then be available for necessary projects, like entitlement programs. We need to keep Social Security and Medicare active in the United States. They're so important to some families and individuals. What is being encouraged in our country is ridiculous. Not only is the government handling huge proportions of money, they're handling other people's money. When that happens you should be extra careful with what you spend it on. As I get older and develop a career, I'll want my hard earned tax dollars to be put to good use. Ed Rollins is also supportive of "paygo." He is a republican strategist and January 2010 he stated we should be supportive of pay as you go. That is where we should be headed.

Other issues:
http://http://roseyerickson.blogspot.com/
http://boesen-boesen.blogspot.com/

'March of a million' demands Mubarak's ouster

There have been many protests in Egypt against their 30 year long president, Hosni Mubarak. On Tuesday, the largest one of these protests took place. BBC claimed there were at least 100,000 people there, while witnesses were estimating about 1 million. It took place in a busy part of Cairo. These protestors say they won't stop their campaign until the president quits. They won't even accept negotiating with him. They want him gone. Egypt will have peace again once he is gone is what most of these protesters are saying, but their actions don't appear to be completely peaceful. Two military surplus stores have been stolen from and two dummies of Mubarak's body have been hung from streetlamps.

All of these actions are quite frightening to me. We don't have much of anything like that going on here. Sure we have protesting, but it's nothing like what's in Egypt. It makes me wonder what their president must have done to have all of these people turn against him. There must have been some corrupt behavior or something. I do think, though, that they shouldn't become a violent group. Stealing weapons and hanging look-alikes of Mubarak are the first steps of something more dangerous. I hope that they don't use the weapons at all. We were talking about this in my Global Studies class and there have already been some protesters and officials killed. I hope this thing, whatever it is, doesn't become much bigger.
http://http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41363935/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/