Jim: I agree that we do spend a lot of money on unnecessary and even frivolous things. But I think that makes the decision making a lot easier in this case. Spending money to find out who the real refugees are and making them welcome and able to grow up healthy would seem to trump a WHOLE lot of junk spending.

As to the balanced budget debate.... well a good start to a sound economic policy on budgeting would be publicly denouncing faith based economics and those who preach and practice it. That would include about 90% of economists and 95% of politicians and 100% of so called "think tanks". In the end the change to a sound economic policy and a sound economy is very simple. And very painful assuming we unwind the bullshit suffocating ours.

Renounce all of our free trade pacts, they are nothing but patent and financial protection for monopolies and speculators.
Renounce the use of the dollar as reserve currency, this is nothing but an excuse/reason to offshore manufacturing.
Introduce a flat income tax, 20% ought to do it. Include all capital gains, asset appreciation, carried interest and other loophole in income.
Make national elections publicly financed and outlaw any private contributions. Corporations ain't people and money ain't speech. Pass a constitutional amendment to make this happen.

There you have it. Problem solved. And welcome to your new Greatest Depression. Fixing this mess is impossible without doling out tremendous amounts of pain. Anyone who tells you differently is lying or ignorant or both. And it means giving up the American empire. Sorry.

Truth is we ain't gonna do this. Or anything resembling it. It's too late. This problem won't be fixed because the people who own this country don't want it fixed. It's just that simple.

All that taken into account though is no reason why we should not be approaching this particular issue from a moral and ethical POV.

At least IMvHO.

Will