This GOP Budget

(1). I am not a liberal.

(2). I am not a Democrat.

(3). I am a capitalist.

(4). I am also a human being. 

(5). I accept that life, whether we like it or not, involves competition, scarcity of resources, winners and losers. 

(6). But I do not understand how we could take away food and health care from poor people just to give more tax cuts to people who already have enough money. What kind of people do that?

(7). We don’t have to be a welfare state or a socialist country. We shouldn’t be. But to be this selfish and cruel and inhuman? Why? For what purpose? 

(8). I get that people in government sometimes have to make very hard choices. This isn’t one of those times. 

(9). We don’t have people fleeing the United States because of the tax burden. 

(10). We don’t have a lack of investment in the stock market, in startups or anything else that an overwhelming tax burden would otherwise cause. 

(11). As a New York City resident, I pay a very high tax burden. Between federal, state and local taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, utility taxes and everything else, between 50-60% of my income goes to the government. 

(12). I fully believe that there is plenty of waste and fraud and abuse in government at all levels. I believe we should use technology to make government more efficient and cost effective and less corrupt at every turn. 

(13). And like everyone, I want as much money in my pocket as possible. 

(14). But at the expense of taking away food from people who need it? At the expense of not giving health care to old people or sick people? I don’t need tax relief that badly. No one does. 

(15). I know from our work on school meals that those programs are highly efficient and cost effective. I know kids need it. I know our education dollars are wasted if kids are too hungry to pay attention in class. 

(16). I have spent over thirty years in and around government at every level. I am as cynical as it gets. I understand what makes politicians tick. I understand that their need for affirmation and validation — to stay in office — trumps everything else. And I still don’t see how any decent human being could choose to do this and live with themselves.

(17). From what I’ve learned over the past 51 years, the point of life is to be as happy as you can. Happiness comes from a variety of sources but mainly, it comes from feeling good about yourself. How can anyone take food away from people who need it to put more money back into their own pockets and still feel good about themselves? 

(18). Unless you are truly a sociopath, if you voted for this budget, you know what you did. It will eat away at you no matter how much you justify it, how much you rationalize it, how much you distract yourself from it. 

(19). I know most politicians believe that their lives are over if they’re not in office, if they’re not somebody. But then talk to people who lose their seats. Turns out they’re just as happy. Often happier. To make these unnecessary choices just to avoid that risk? You’re dooming yourself to misery. 

(20). Right now, this budget is still just a construct, a framework — not a list of actual, legislated cuts. We know that food and health care are the top targets. We know the tax cuts can’t happen without it. But it’s not too late to do the right thing. It never is.