It’s been nine days of protests with no resolution yet in
sight. Our democratic senators have fled to Illinois, our governor has begun
dishing out threats and our disgruntled workers have been publicized all over
the world. But Gov. Scott Walker refuses to budge. He is steadfast on his plan. He’s
like a train – not a high-speed rail one, though, because we all know how he
feels about those – whose tracks have been set (by his campaign contributors). I
have heard some people praise him for it. These people say that he is making
tough choices that are necessary for the state of Wisconsin. The Cap Times
Editorial Board responded by stating, “Gov. Scott Walker is not making tough
choices. He is making political choices, and they are designed not to balance
budgets but to improve his political position and that of his party.”

This is true. This was expected. This is how our government
currently works. Now more than ever, I am tired of just being okay with it. I
propose a solution; the solution is to have a privately-funded, non-partisan
institution dedicated to making economic decisions.

We are ruled by a monopolistic political platform driven government.
It provides wonderful services for us. But, ultimately, the system has no
motivation to improve because there’s no competition. So instead we get upset
with Democrats not doing enough, so we vote in Republicans; then, we get upset
with Republicans not doing enough, so we vote in Democrats. When in office, each
party is only after its own political agenda, which basically just results in a
big parade where they blame it on the other guys and try to look the heroes to
stay in office.

This is why we need a separate institution to rule on how the
government spends money. Let Republicans call a tax hike on the wealthy
socialism and Democrats call cutting stimulus money fascism. I care about
getting this country out of the red and into the black. I want this country to
have enough money to provide the best damn education, health care and social
services it can for its citizens.

We shouldn’t be spending as much as $47 billion on a
never-ending war on drugs, an excess of at least $150 billion on keeping our
troops in Germany, England and Japan, and involving the government in an excess
of areas I feel it doesn’t need to. In giving this country and the rest of the
world some more breathing room, I think we could really cut down our spending.
Moreover, if we really feel like countries can’t do without our troops inside
their borders, why not make some profit off it? Seriously, let’s rent our
military defense services by the hour. That should solve the deficit.

Point is, practically everyone, including John Stossel has ideas of how we could get the United States out of this pit of excess
spending. But, as Stossel points out, “…the budget can be cut. Only politics
stand in the way.”

So I propose we remove the politics and start working on
some solutions. We all need to stop complaining and playing the blame game and
realize that things are going to get a little worse before they get better. We
need to stop attacking one another based on our political views and figure out
some long-term solutions. It is easy for everyone to be only concerned about
their own short-term benefits. But sometimes those short-term benefits need to
be set aside for the greater good. This is one of those times.

Victoria Yakovleva ([email protected]) is
a senior in chemical engineering.