Sequester Cuts 1, Obama 0

I was reading today that the government deficit in 2012 actually dropped from 3.6 trillion to 3.54 trillion and is on track to dip below 3.45 trillion by September, the end of fiscal 2013. Originally, in 2011, our deficit was forecast to peak 4 trillion by 22014. So what do we owe this dramatic turn-around to, and why isn't this more newsworthy?
The answer- the sequester cuts, and Democrats and the Administration don't want to call attention to it. Why? Because the sky hasn't fallen, the world didn't stop turning, and we didn't plunge into the next Great Recession again as they predicted. No, our society is more than capable of absorbing a piddley 5% cut-back- most Americans cut back much deeper than that these past few years- and it's time our government learned to do the same. It's time we get spending under control. So what's the new line coming out of the Administration?
Obama is offering the House, currently controlled by the GOP, a "balanced approach" to the 2014 budget in exchange for cancelling the sequester. Personally, seeing the deficit drop two years in a row for the first time since the Korean War is encouraging. Obama is like our over-paid, spoiled professional athletes, who sign a contract, get what they want, then cry and whine and try to renegotiate. Here's a thought- honor your word Mr. President. You signed this deal in 2011, received your increase in the debt ceiling, because the House honored their end of the contract, and now you want out of your end. Man up and honor your agreement! All the bad things you predicted didn't happen, all the bad things you tried to fabricate didn't pan out, and now we're finally putting some brakes on your out-of-control tax-and-spend administration. After five years of fiscal failure a reasonably intelligent person would reason that they need to change tactics- so how about it?
And while I'm railing on unjust things coming out of your administration, what's the deal with exempting Congress out of Obamacare? If it's good enough for the masses it should be good enough for our elected officials... Better yet, perhaps it's time to admit that this whole "train-wreck" was a big mistake and just repeal it. A mistake is only a mistake as long as you continue in it. Better to have nothing to show for eight years in office than to have this colossal failure on your record for all posterity...
Food for thought...

Can I Be Present in the Present?

Life is lived only in one place- the present. Unfortunately all too often we find ourselves distracted from life, even as it's happening to us, by the past or the future. I remember so clearly as a boy that "time" just seemed to drag by. Years were measured by halves and quarters- ("I'm seven and a half", or "I'm eleven and three quarters"). I couldn't wait for each milestone to come. I lived often for the future, and it seemed to take forever to arrive.
As I get older I'm amazed at how fast time passes, and often wonder what happened to my summer, or lament on things I didn't get done that I wanted to accomplish, wondering where the time went. All too often I'm distracted by my past. I tell myself I'm going to do things as I look to the future, yet often forgetting that one unchangeable truth- life is happening now. Sometimes I find myself talking to someone, or doing some task, and my mind is on a dozen other things, other places, distracted by was or is to come.
Life is happening now, all around us, and it is in our best interest to learn to live in the moment, to be aware of now, and all that is happening around us. This is life, and this is where our joy and contentment lie. The past is gone, the future may never come, but we have today. We need to learn to own it. By owning each day, by doing what we can right now, in the present, to make our lives better, is the secret to a better tomorrow. No one owes you anything more than you have today. Take advantage of what you have while you have it and refocus yourself on now.

On a separate note, totally unrelated to the topic of this blog, I wanted to share two quotes I read recently, because I found them delightful. The first was from Lawrence Peter who said, "By the time a man realizes that his father was usually right, he has a son who thinks he's usually wrong". The second is even more profound; it comes from John Andrew Holmes who said, "It is well to remember that the entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others".

Food for thought...