Silent long enough.....

So I have resisted comment on the current debt debacle going on in D.C. because honestly I am so disgusted with politics in general lately that I have had no idea what to say. I think that once again those elected are not actually listening to the people. "Cut, Cap, and Balance" has some pretty good points. Mega cuts are needed and a cap is a great idea. Balancing the budget and requiring a super-majority vote for certain changes is a good thing. We fall into a tax bracket where hubby paid in a hefty % last year much to our shock. Despite looking froward to that return I honestly think that if it improved the economy and the entitlements were reformed as well as some immigration crack downs we both would feel comfortable paying more. I have been looking at the "Gang of Six" and their new plan today. If it does what they claim I think this plan looks very promising. Part of the problem has been the total complication of things. You get this tax break but that tax so you actually pay this....... blah, blah, WTF? I swear tax law is it's own language. I do the taxes for a few people besides us and I swear it boggles my mind. Hubby paid in XX amount but only got back a small chunk despite owning a home and 2 kids. A SIL made not even a 1/3, has one child and rents, paid in far less, and received quite a bit more back. It boggled my mind. Heck my MIL didn't even pay in because she made so little but she received a return? Really? Makes absolutely no sense to me at all. Simplification would be nice. I think reforming entitlements (SSI to me is not entitlement as you pay in you should get back.) so that citizenship requirements are more thoroughly checked and credit checks are ran to see if those applying have crazy amounts of credit and such would be good. I was in Wal-mart yesterday and we are trying to save so I can see the first niece born to my side of the family be blessed in a couple weeks and so we can visit other family in Utah for a family tradition of Derby weekend. I kept telling the girls "No" when they asked for the usual weird kid requests and finally said we were trying to not spend money. I got such nasty looks from a few people and one of them ended up behind us in line to check out. Should have seen the shock when I handed over my debit card and not a food stamps card. I think because I seemed frustrated and I said we didn't have the money he assumed we were on food stamps yet my cart was very full. Um no, just teaching my kids about budget. Back to the plan. Major cuts is a very good thing. Yes times are tough and things need to be done but we don't have the money and we need to stop spending more than we have. We borrow from John to pay Jim and ignore our own needs and it has to stop. Hopefully they figure something out soon. I don't like where things are headed but I think some people are trying to do the right thing. They just might be in the minority still.