The Pew Research Center's president, Andrew Kohut, penned a revealing statement in his June 14 article about America's debt and deficit: "In my years of polling, there has never been an issue such as the deficit on which there has been such a consensus among the public about its importance ... "
The issue of the budget deficit has risen 16 points since 2007, now trailing only the economy and jobs in its public ranking of significance in the minds of voters, according to Pew research.
This information is known as politicians circulate their proposals and commitments on the campaign trail to address our nation's economy and true spending problem.
In recent days, there have been serious efforts in the U.S. Senate to address "the single largest, growing major expense in the federal budget," according to Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. His reference is to multiple attempts to make some simple reforms to the food stamp program that were rebuffed by the majority Democrats in the chamber.
Sessions said his two reform proposals were aimed at "preventing states from waiving eligibility requirements" in order to participate in the program and "eliminating bonus pay provided to states for deliberately swelling the rolls."
The almost $500 million in bonus pay for state incentives for increased enrollment was protected, and the attempt at saving a projected $11 billion of the $770 billion total estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to be spent on food stamps overwhelmingly was defeated in a party-line vote, news accounts said.
Offering just a bit of perspective, this cut of $11.5 billion would occur over 10 years. A measly 1.49 percent cut over a decade that comes from common-sense reforms, without penalizing needy recipients, has been fought and defeated.
Will Rogers got it right when he joked, "This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when a baby gets a hold of a hammer."