SHOULDN’T WE ALL SHARE THE BURDEN?

Balancing the budget has to be a priority both on a state level and a federal level. But the question is, how do we do that? Some advocates say that we need to cut the social safety net programs and we keep hearing that we can no longer afford these programs.  When we talk about the safety net program, everyone always assumes that we are just talking about Medicare and Social Security.  The Social Safety net programs are the commodity food programs that assist the elderly, Women, Infants and Children, which assist low income families with the nutritional needs for families with infants and young children. An important program here in the northeast is the fuel assistance program, which assists low-income families with fuel oil/propane assistance.  Job programs in this economy are so important. They give workers the opportunity to restart their careers by being trained for jobs that are relevant in today’s economy. For instance, an auto worker in Detroit who had been laid off from General Motors numerous times had the opportunity go to nurses training. Since this was an “equal dollar” job, it was a win/win situation for everyone; we added a valuable member to the nursing profession which currently has a shortage of nurses, and we subtracted from the auto workers profession.

It seems to me that when the cuts are focused on just these programs it doesn’t seem that the burden of balancing the budget is being equally distributed. The top 2% of American earners seem to be exempted from sharing the burden. I ask you, is this fair? The American people don’t mind sacrificing but they want to know that everyone is sharing in that sacrifice. One of my concerns is what happens to the individuals when these programs no longer exist? Is our society saying that because these individuals were born, ill, or poor that they don’t matter as much as people who were born healthy and wealthy? The America I grew up in always took care of its own, no matter from what station of life you came!