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.
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