![\"\"](\"http:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/files\/2011\/04\/AlexanderBW1.jpg\")
<\/a>Alexander Robinson<\/strong> According to the Central Intelligence Agency\u2019s Factbook, the United States has an external debt of $13.9 trillion dollars, the highest debt among all of the world\u2019s nations. While it is evident that cuts are necessary to curb the U.S. spending binge, it is equally evident that a serious attempt to balance the budget is not being made by Democrats or Republicans.<\/p>\n President Obama appeared to save the nation from a governmental shutdown when Congress passed a last minute, temporary budget comprised of $38 billion dollars in spending cuts. A government shutdown would have led to hundreds of thousands of federal employees being furloughed, closure of federal parks and institutions, even the closure of the Internal Revenue Service, leaving millions waiting for federal refund checks.<\/p>\n While a government shutdown crisis was diverted, the lingering issues concerning the financial budget have not been solved. The fix was only temporary and the possibility of another government crisis is imminent; similar to the one during the mid-90s that caused billions in economic loss. Cuts will be made and in holding true to the theory of trickle up economics; the cuts will disproportionally affect the poor, and more likely than not the minority groups living in America.<\/p>\n Though it was able to be saved from this round of spending cuts, Planned Parenthood, a federally funded program which assists low-income women with their health concerns, was one main issue that was preventing the budget from being passed. A program mind you, that is only accounting for millions of dollars, while other cuts are in the realm of billions, keeping in mind that the government\u2019s debt is far into the trillions.<\/p>\n This shows that the basis of the argument is not concerning cuts and figures, or any kind of arithmetic for that matter, only to whom the money is going, and how it is being spent. This is evidenced by the fact the Congress was able to include in the budget a provision preventing Washington D.C. from spending federal money on abortions in the district (which led to dozens being arrested, among them Washington D.C.\u2019s mayor, Vincent Gray).<\/p>\n Benefits of the new budget come in the shape of a return to the maximum $5500 for Pell Grants for college students, and financial incentives for educational programs. Still the negative outweighs the positive as Medicare is being dismantled leaving millions of Americans, especially senior citizens, unable to cover their healthcare costs.<\/p>\n What is most appalling to me is the fact that the only discussion is concerning spending cuts; what about generating revenue? As social programs that have a very obvious benefit to the American people are being slashed, military expenditures are being increased, as well as tax cuts for the rich and the billion dollar corporations.<\/p>\n With the government shutdown being averted, for now at least, the crisis is being diverted, diverted to the American people who will pay for it in terms of their quality of life, as their health decreases and communities become deprived, mainly due to a government that obviously has misplaced priorities.<\/p>\n Commentary expresses the views of the writer, not that\u00a0of The Flash or Jackson State University.\u00a0 <\/strong>If you have comments, contact Alexander Robinson at theflash@jsums.edu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alexander Robinson Associate Editor According to the Central Intelligence Agency\u2019s Factbook, the United States has an external debt of $13.9 trillion dollars, the highest debt…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_plus_post_options":"{}","editor_plus_copied_stylings":"{}","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAssociate Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n