The Budget Deal

There is a lot of grousing on the budget deal that stopped the shutdown, on both sides.   But here are my takes.

#1 - The budget deal for this year was not as large as it should have been but it was way better than it could have been.   The real issue comes with the next budget.
#2 - The problem is not revenues, it is expenses.  When you have 40% of your budget coming from borrowed money this is not a revenue problem.
#3 - A good deal of what was called the Great Society is a major contributor to the problem.  There is an assumption that by making something funded with public funds somehow it will be better or available to more or some other unproven concept.  During the Great Society era RFK was quoted as saying "Some people see things as they are and ask why?   I dream of things that never were and ask, Why Not?" (Actually that is a quote from GB Shaw)  The problem with the assumption is that it assumes that the unknown will always trump the known.  We've now got 40 years of data that suggests that there are some immutable parts of human nature that are not likely to be changed.   Government art is not better and may be worse.  Ditto for support for the Humanities.  Ditto for Public Media.   We need to think carefully about what government can do well not what government can do.
#4 - Just because the government does it does not mean it will be unchangeable.  Entitlements need to be on the table and need to go to less centrally controlled systems.
#5 - The Ryan Plan for next year is a good starting point.  We need to reintroduce a strong component of opportunities for individual initiative.  Nannystateism is a failure.   But so is Mercantilism.  Unfortunately the current administration seems to believe in both with policies like Obamacare and support for GE and Green Tech.  The market is a pretty good way to encourage initiative.