The Budget Bullshit: What this means for the US Environmentalists

The front page of every newspaper section on politics for the past three months has been cluttered with the relentless boredom of budget discussions. For most Americans, including myself, it has become overly boring to even attempt to track what difficulty the whiteheads in Washington are having with the numbers now. In the past few months my silence over the internet waves of blogging has been to the increasing amount of analysis that I have had to go through on the most thrilling project of my life: the US Public sector. While being paid to analyze politics has always been one of my greatest ambitions, I was slightly astonished at how lengthy a correct budget analysis could prove to be. Alas, my work has finally paid off, but again, my green soul has been trembling in anticipation over what this budget could mean. I'm sure for most Americans the word budget automatically brings images of medicare arguments, yet I promise you that this lame document does not only mean something for every one of us, but this year's budget most directly affects the best of us, the greenies. Allow me to explain how. And to do so bluntly.

The current economy of the United States is hurting. We all know it. From those of us sitting on the sofa lamenting over the annoyance of unemployment, or those of us wondering how on earth we can afford a tax raise, and to even those of us who are no longer able to sit around and read because we have had to take second jobs. We have all heard of the Baby-boomers, the 60's, Generation X, but what can we say about those of us who are just beginning to make our mark in today's America? Well my friends, we are part of a lovely grouping, a group I like to call Generation Fucked. Sorry I'm not sorry for my language, but anyone who has viewed the rising unemployment rate, the declining national economy, and the growing deficit, we can all agree that this is somewhat appropriate. Alas, the budget for this year definitely does not have the monetary power to make us, but it does have the crappiness to break us down even further.

With a deficit now so large the government has to vote to raise the debt ceiling, the last thing any of us want is to see more money wasted on programs that are not going to help us. I am completely for cutting unnecessary spend, but I am quite worried over what the current administration thinks is "unnecessary". For me, unnecessary is doling out cash handouts to those who are not deserving, to increasing military spend, to increased spend on oil speculation, and most of all, continued economic relief to the private sector. I am, by trade, an economist, and I understand and agree with the governments bailout of the banks that were categorized as too big too fail, but I do not understand the continued lack of regulation and monetary support for these banks...but that will be next week's post. This week's post is understanding what the programs the government is cutting and how it affects the Average Joe and his backyard.

There are many issues that bother me in regards to the budget negotiations, but the most depressing for me is to see the EPA actually being used as a point of leverage between the Republicans and Democrats. For many people the previous administration's election was based off of the liberal stance on education, the environment, and the corporate sector. For the corporate sector, it's simple. Our economy is failing. We have to raise revenue. The easy thing would be to raise taxes, but of course the billion dollar firms are staunch in the stance this would force them to tighten their belts across international markets. For me, this is a perfect defense of enforcing taxes on them. International? Terrific, spend less in Switzerland, we're going to tax you and keep your money where it belongs. Out of Jets-R-US and into the National treasury. I'm sure that point will have many people upset, but feel free to contact me and I'll be more than happy to hear your insights. But for now, the taxes remain the same and as a result state budgets are failing, causing cuts on education to become the easiest priority. And obviously, after education, comes the environment.

This year's Environmental Protection Agency's budget stands to be lessened by more than $1.6 billion. Before you think, yes that is accurate, that is way too much spending on the environment let's compare that to the military spend. More than $660 billion, close to 5% of our nation's entire GDP and HALF of the entire spending in the United State's next year. Combined with the over $400 billion spend on medicare, we have very little money to spend on anything but guns and medicine. The Republicans have argued the EPA does not need the money for "repetitive programs" and that taking any sort of carbon solution on the Federal Government would be a "waste". Now, I love nature, everyone who knows me knows that. But I like something more than nature and that is money. Which is why these "repetitive programs" getting cut in the EPA really rub me the wrong way.

The EV Infrastructure Bill is one such program. It is counted as repetitive because half of the funding will come from the National Science Foundation, who has agreed to help the EPA, mainly based on the size of the project. It will require $3.9 billion to put in electric vehicle charging stations and to improve electric vehicle technology in the United States. Before everyone starts thinking that there is no way hybrids are a good solution for the US, they should realize today's smart grid market is valued in trillions of dollars. With the connection to utilities, production, manufacturing, wireless services, and construction, to name a few, the market is as advantageous as investing in Ford when it came out with it's first car. Except that investing in smart grid would be like investing in Ford, construction firms, highway companies, and Apple all at once.

However, in order for this bill to pass the Republicans and Democrats will have to come together to realize how important smart grid technology is. Perhaps they will come to realize this, but forget to realize the agencies who led these technological developments have been those "green agencies". Perhaps we will get this project, but if the EPA budget gets cut, we will lose on many other opportunties.

But trillions? Who needs trillions? Or more jobs? Or less of an oil dependence? Only a country with a sound economy, high employment rate, and plethora of oil wells.

and that land would be the UAE, not the USA.

The state of our union.

Well it's finally happened. An American President has finally admitted that we have to go green. I am SO glad I had written my last blog post before the State of the Union address. I feel like I wrote down some directions and President Obama was happy to include some of them as suggestions to the American people. While there are as many critics as supports on the Presidents State of the Union address, everyone has to agree that at part of what the President said is true. While it seems that the Americans I have spoken to mostly agree on the issues that the President presented, there still appears to be a hint of hesitancy that comes with such a large statement. The American public seems to be convinced that we must progress forward, but everyone is concerned that the government will be unable to weaken the gap between the Republican and Democratic discourse. Yet what Obama said is true. Despite you're political affiliation, no American can disagree that we have been stuck in a rut the past few years. Previously to that, we were rapidly declining downward. I couldn't agree with Obama more: we need to "out-educate and out-innovate" every other country. We need to put the states back on top. While others seemed doubtful that the President had a direct plan in action, I inferred otherwise. Or at least chose to. So here's the things that I saw as the most exciting in the President's speech, and the things that I would most like to see happen. I know healthcare and border control don't make my list, but for the time being these are the three things that must start happening NOW!

1. Cutting the Crap- The trend in recent American economics has been to spend, spend, spend. Whether it's developing military intel, bailing out banks, or covering the losses on defaulted loans, the only thing the government has done with money has been to essentially toss it to the wind. Obama seemed to make it clear that we have to move away from this trend, and into an area of smart spending, not savings. Giving money to the richest companies in the world (oil)? Cut. Giving tax aid to the wealthy? Cut.Decreasing reckless government spending? Cut. This seems to be well and good to me. If the American citizen can't take their credit card on a shopping spree and buy everything they want the American government shouldn't be able to either.

2. Investing in The Future- Finally, my favorite of all i-words makes it onto the scene. Innovation! While I had become convinced that the US was going to stay in the stagnation of the steel age, I am now feeling slightly more hopeful that our President has noticed our export system has remained pretty much unchanged since things were "black and white". I couldn't agree more. I remember the awe I felt when moving to London and seeing how much bigger Piccadilly seemed compared to Times Square. Then, I remember going to Shanghai, and being in 1 out of about 20 different city centers. I remember seeing TV's on every skyscraper, not just one. I remember seeing entire cities lined with solar panels, not just streets. I remember seeing people buying luxury goods. Seeing the cities boom. I saw the opposite of the states. If China can develop the latest energies going around the red tape of a communist government, then the United States should be most definitely able to put there heads together to come up with some sort of innovation scheme in order to compete in the global political economy. For the states, let's combine our first goal with our second. Let's cut the spending in the Middle East and put it into creating new technologies that make new jobs.

3. Reorganization- Finally, someone realized just how confusing our government is. For a country that complains about the complicated, bureaucratic, and socialized systems of Europe, we have more departments than any foreign nation I have encountered. As a recent college graduate, I wasn't even sure where to look to apply for government jobs. I wanted to do the environment, but not protection. EPA? No, Agricultural. No, exports, because of trade and environment. No, this one, this one, holy moly. Let's lump together the departments that deal with each other, if for no other reason than to create some more similarities between the Republicans and Democrats. While people become heated and passionate against people they do not typically work with, the past two weeks have shown heated rivalries becoming strong alliances. Although it may be hard to envision certain government members working together, at the end of the day they will be educated on similar issues and will provide the checks and balances that our nation was built upon. Perhaps we can introduce some cuts here too. Combining buildings and departments? Less room for upkeep.

These are the first three steps our now toddler of a nation needs to take. If take these steps we can hope for some small changes within our economy to occur, and can really begin to move forward. Accompanying innovation will be the natural twin of education. With a demand for new industries and the creation of new jobs, the public will need higher education and stronger certifications to be able to compete on the national job market. A better trained public becomes a more efficient public, and with that we can hope to produce more products for exports. More exports, more international attention and cooperation. And for me, this will be how America comes back on top. Back to the age of international decency and back to the age of excitement. I don't want to be scared or nervous about being an American. I shouldn't have to expect my only job market to be in Europe. As a 24 year old PhD student I should be excited about my return to the states, and hopeful for the opportunities that await me there. So let's make it happen.

In every school of political thought there comes a need for some sort of revolution. Some people interpret this as violent, others as ideological. Regardless, every system acknowledges that there must be periods of transition in government that are spurred by the interests of the public. As Americans, let's set an example. Show the government that we can go green. Let's cut down on driving a bit. Take some bags to the grocery store. Cut down on one red-meat meal a week. Recycle. Buy locally. Buy organically. Clean sustainably. Go green.

And so it begins....

I have been toying with the idea of creating a blog for my work purposes for quite some time. I debated between the positivity of getting my thoughts across to at least a few new people, and the negativity of having to write yet another new thing every day. Yesterday's post-holiday "catch up" finally drove me to the edge of positivity, and here I am today, writing my first "Go Green" blog post. After hours of frustration with a few of my family members, I decided I had had enough. If conservative America refused to listen to me, then perhaps a few members of my family could take the time to read my thoughts on the political economy, and maybe even come to understand a glimpse of what I have been working on.

Allow me to explain. I am an American. Nothing interesting in terms of nationality or ethnicity, just a good ol' fashioned American. Although I grew up mainly on the East Coast, my father's relocation to the Southwestern part of the US had a pretty large influence on my life. After spending years traipsing through the long, cold winters of Southwestern Pennsylvania, an escape to the desert was everything my sun-hungry soul had been looking for. Wide-open spaces, expansive skies, and a sun you could actually feel on your face...it was the America I had never seen, but had always been looking for. The pure awesomeness of the nature in the Southwest was so daunting, that it left quite an impression on me. I couldn't believe there was so much to do outside. Forget about paying for wilderness adventures, in the Southwest people just took them. It seemed to me that everyone went camping, fishing, hiking, kayaking, and even skiing all of the time. As a sworn city kid, I was actually quite surprised that I enjoyed myself so much exploring the great outdoors. I suppose it was here that the first seeds of sustainability began to sink in....

I didn't become an environmentalist right away. In fact, the day I realized I was somewhat of a "tree-hugger" came totally by surprise to me. Although I majored in Politics and Economics, and had considered myself somewhat moderate (yet registered liberal) I knew that when it came down to it, I really was much more conservative than even I wanted to admit. After a few internships in Politics, I had switched my affiliation to the Republican party, and for me the most pressing of issues was the war in Iraq, the crashing economy, and the increasing amount of jobless Americans. The environment never made it onto my top-ten list of concerns.

I believe it was my commencement of a Master's course that caused the light-bulb to turn on in my head, when I realized the connection between the environment and well, everything. My course was intense, focusing on International Politics, and, for me, the Global Political Economy. After weeks of studying war after war, and conflict after conflict, it seemed that every modern conflict had one connection: oil. The war in Iraq, the war in Kuwait, the American debt to China, blah blah blah, everything seemed to come back to the inability of Americans to move away from oil, and away from conflict. After arguing with one of my teachers for the umpteenth time about the American presence in Afghanistan, I finally admitted my frustration and questioned how we would ever get out of the lull my nation seemed to be in. I realized we had to go green. Not just because I liked to hike, or because I think koala bears are adorable, but because I was sick of hearing my post-graduate friends discussing the job opportunities with the dread similar to the drafting of Vietnam. For me, America had to get back on top. The economy has to resurrect itself. And here was the lightbulb: If the US was a bit greener, we would have less concerns about the Middle-East. Smaller concerns about the Middle-East, smaller budgets needed for Military spending. More money for schools, more money for jobs. More jobs= more people spending money= greater American economy.

And so I went green.

I'm not here to lecture people on what they should or shouldn't do in terms of their personal life. But I am here to share a few tid-bits that have made me lean towards becoming more environmentally concerned, and more sustainably active. Hope I'm not a bore.