And gave it 20 whacks

It's easy to talk about taking a giant ax to cut budgets, trim government and eliminate spending as long as it's done on a macro scale. It's when things come down to the micro scale that cuts become hard, verging on impossible, to do.

Hoping it'll fall on someone else. That's the problem.

Budget cuts always have a human component. Someone, somewhere is going to get a financial whupping. Cut enough and someone is going to lose their job.

Can you look someone in the eye and say "I'm firing you because I don't want pay the taxes that pay your salary."?

Yes. Spell it correctly while YOU'RE at it.

Sure, that's easy to do in theory. As long as the person being fired is someone far away, whom you've never met and so on. Keep it nebulous and everything is copacetic.

Can you walk next door and tell your neighbor, who has a mortgage, kids, a car payment and has watched your house for you when you were gone on the weekend that "Hey, I'm cutting taxes and eliminating your job."?

Brutal? Absolutely.

Own up to your actions and don't pass the buck.

 Unfair? Absolutely not.

Reality ain't Sesame Street. Get used to the idea.

Consider your own situation. How much of what you do is directly covered by tax dollars? More than you think, I'll bet.

Unless you are even more a hermit and luddite than Ted Kaczynski, a significant amount of your life is directly related taxes and how those taxes are spent. Roads are made and maintained with tax dollars. Cut the budget, cut road work which means more potholes and for you in the frozen areas, less salt and less snow plowing.

The very infrastructure that allows you to read this is supported in some measure by tax dollars. Electrical lines, the internet and the software you use are eventually linked to the government and government spending.

The question is not are you willing to drop the ax on your neighbor.

The question really is: Are you willing to hammer yourself?

The answer to that, for most people, is no. If the pain can be put one someone else, people want that done. That's understandable. It's also the problem. It's called refusing to take responsibility.

I ain't a Tundra Barbi fan, but I completely agree with the overall sentiment expressed herein

 
It's also short sighted is what got the nation into this mess. Short sighted is going to continue to drag us down. How far down? You don't want to know.