Feeling fustrated.

Oh Brother! That's why I say, cut the budgets of all agencies, departments, in all three branches (to include all parts of both Houses of Congress, the White House and the Supreme Court) by 10%.. then hold audits to decide where more can be cut... and that is AFTER cutting all departments and agencies with no Constitutional justification. No sacred cows, no special interests, no poster child left behind.

what I would like to know is how we even started paying for a NASCAR car. goodness sake.

The irony here is I'll bet some of those hollering the loudest about cutting the NASCAR sponsorship are the same people who are all for getting rid of the Department of Education, the EPA and other government services and agencies. They're probably opposed to any extensions of unemployment benefits and in favor of cutting off funding to Planned Parenthood and the WIC program. I say this because NASCAR's "base" is primarily in the south, most of which are "red states". You're so right that everyone is going to have to sacrifice in some way but I'd guess the vast majority of Americans really don't see it that way. They want to get rid of all pork but their OWN pork, which they don't actually consider to be pork to begin with because it affects THEM! Cutting spending alone isn't going to get us out of the mess we're in. It's also going to take some investing in our infrastructure, which means spending but which will in turn stimulate the economy, which in turn will increase revenue and lower the deficit. Annie

There isn't anyone who is going to think that their particular expenditure is expendable. I listened to Chris Christie's speech the other day and he said something that is true and probably unpopular. He said that in order to fix the economic problems and avoid collapse, we have to separate what we need from what we want. We have to do the necessary, and there's only so much money. People are going to have to be willing to give up the things they just like or want, or the whole thing is going to collapse.

I also agree it should be cut. I don't think our tax dollars should have been used to sponsor a race car in the first place. Not only that, I'd like to look at all federal agencies' PR budgets (television, radio, billboards, etc.). I think way too much money is being wasted in creating "public messages", even if the stations are airing the stuff free. If I'm not mistaken, I think there's more public messages on the radio, at least, than I've ever heard in the past. And every time I hear a message, I think to myself, "How much money could we have saved if that particular message hadn't aired? And just what did I get out of that message?" The answer to the second question is 99.999% "nothing".

I must say I agree. Something has to be cut and the non-essentials will be the first to go. News seems to be on the side of bash them for cutting. I heard that they were going to cut public schools by 4% in the state. Now, four percent needs to be taken into consideration for how low it is. 4% is 4 pennies on every dollar. If we cut that from their wages if they made $10 an hour then they will be making $9.60 an hour. But the news is making it out that they want to "cut, cut, cut." If I were to have four pennies cut from my budget I could easily absorb it. It would amount to $10 a week.