Does our government always tell us the truth or do we misinterpret what is said?

A perfect example is the budget just passed by Congress which supposedly cut more than $38 billion in spending which was more than the Democrats wanted, did not cut enough for the Republicans while enraging the Tea Party, which wanted more cuts. I have a little surprise for you because it appears there really weren’t any cuts to begin with. With a proposed federal budget of $3.7 trillion, that $38 billion is nothing but chump change anyways (actually 1/100th of the proposed budget). Well, that’s if Congress settles down to complete the real budget this week.

Oh, I almost left one thing out about the $38 billion cut in the federal budget. This money was not cut from any federal agency’s budget, it was cut from mandatory programs like the highway fund where $2.5 billion couldn’t be spent because of budget caps. Please don’t ask me how a federal fund could have $2.5 billion more than it could spend because I don’t comprehend it either. Other funds came from so-called “ghost funds” from the departments of Treasury and Justice. It sound likes Congress only cut funds that we never had in the first place. It’s like buying a new car with the famous $1,000 dollar refund. You can either take $1,000 in cash or deduct it from the price of the car but did you really save anything in the first place?

I would also go into depth about the federal deficit but our president will be addressing the nation this week but I have to submit this column before he does. It will be interesting to see what he proposes but I have this strange feeling what he says won’t be exactly true. The $3 trillion or so spent during the bailout of financial institution and car manufacturers along with the stimulus program was all borrowed money of which some was supposedly paid back.

It is amazing that some members of Congress have wanted to spend the stimulus money we didn’t spend on other programs of their liking even though we never had the money in the first place. I can’t remember what state it was in but when one member of a state legislature stated that they had a $50 million deficit, another member stated that they had better spend it. Sounds like Washington D.C. to me.

In Washington, congressional pork became earmarks while in Augusta the deficit became a structural gap and increased taxes became enhanced revenue. I actually received an explanation from a member of the Legislature that a deficit was defined as not having enough money to spend on a budget while a structural gap was defined as a lack of money to spend in a proposed budget. If the reader can figure out the difference, I have some oceanfront property in Presque Isle to give away. Other examples of government-speak are funding streams (money), social exclusion (poverty) and worklessness (unemployed). Maybe the use of these words by elected and appointed officials has resulted in a communications bypass resulting in confusion in those people who vote.

The bond proposals that we vote either for or against on the state ballot are a perfect example of the state government making us believe that if approved, we will receive some free government money for projects in this state. Some people have come to believe that they are, in fact, government savings bonds. No wonder Gore Vidal once said that 50 percent of the people won’t vote and 50 percent don’t read newspapers and he hoped it’s the same 50 percent.

Lane Hiltunen, of Windham, refuses to learn a new language. LOL