"the micro view of the macro problem"

Bryan McGrath:

I have written before that the middle class of the United States increasingly wears a Scarlet "E" pinned to its chest, with "E" standing for "entitlements". ... I've also written about the rise of the view that "taking care of our troops" and being "pro-military" increasingly means lavishing more and more social benefits upon military members, their families and retirees. ...

Into this atmosphere comes the latest unspeakable injustice; it seems that the Congress, in an effort to reform what was already a far too generous VA education benefit, has capped tuition that can be paid to veterans pursuing higher education, creating a situation in which such students qualify for ADDITIONAL money in 39 states, and students in 11 states will see a cut in their benefit. Of course, those students seeing a decrease in their benefits have taken to the barricades in opposition to this crime against all that is good and proper.

As I wrote last October:

We voters ideologically approve cutting the budget but operationally don't want it done on our own backs. My parents are in their 80s. Do I really want Medicare to be cut? Baby boomers, of whom I am one, are just starting to retire in large numbers. Guess what's going to happen to Social Security spending? Do we really want those payouts slashed just as we're starting to draw them?

Including government employees, more than 88 million Americans are personally dependent to some degree on government payouts. That's 29 percent of us. Do you really think it is politically possible for even a veto-proof Republican Congress to slash those programs, jobs or benefits enough to make a meaningful dent in the trillion-dollar-plus deficit?

... The question is whether we have the will - the will, each one of us, to accept the consequences personally.

Will you accept a 10 percent reduction in your federally-sponsored benefits (schools, highways, direct payments, name it)? Will I? And if we will, will the representatives and senators we send to Washington next month have the will to push it through?

The jury is still out. And the jury is the state of Wisconsin.