Is Democracy destined to become this?

I don't know about you, but the last 11 years have done a lot of damage to my feelings about the US.  I'm not saying the political climate before 2000 was perfect or even good, but what has happened in the last 11 years sometimes boggles the mind.  Now, there's this new GOP movement to cull $100B (that's a B for Billion) from the Federal budget.  Reagan adviser Bruce Bartlett has written it would “mean abolishing just about every government function outside of entitlements, interest, and defense.”  This does, of course, mean it will not happen.  The small fringe group in the House that wants to do this will not get their way.

What is disturbing, though, is the mere fact there are a number of people in Congress who want to do this.  There have been other people than just little ol' me who have said this would destroy our country.  This is not hyperbole.  It would literally remake the US into something completely different than it is now.  We could debate what that would be, but there is no debate that it would happen.  Entitlements are Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.  Interest is what we pay to service our debt.  Defense is the military.  That's it.

Everything else that the Federal government does, including funding of State governments, would be terminated.  States like California would be better off, since it gets only $0.78 for every $1.00 paid by Californians in Federal taxes.  This isn't true of many states, though.  Ironically, many are Red states receiving more in Federal funding than they pay in Federal taxes.  So, if you ignore the issue of what the Federal government does, the idea proposed will at a minimum push many states already on the edge over it.

Think of all those three letter agencies which keep you safe.  FDA and EPA come to mind.  What would businesses do without either of those?  Do you think they are some liberal plot to depress profits?  The EPA was created by Nixon.

There has been a war on the EPA for 15+ years.  I never understood this one.  I've been party to discussions on various websites where the anger toward the EPA was so far out of proportion I just couldn't understand it.  Do not Conservatives also drink tap water or breath the same air as everyone else?  Here's a good example: extraction of natural gas might pose quite a health risk.

The FDA has already been gutted.  Drugs are pushed through with minimal testing, and smaller and smaller trial sizes.  What is left is a shadow of the former agency.

I do agree with those that say the Federal government is too big and too inefficient.  There are many things it has no business funding.  This current attack, though, isn't a fix for that, it's a desire to bring down the government as we know it.  It's a push to remake our country into something else.