It's come to this...

The budget issue is getting ugly, very ugly. Senate Democrats and House Republicans are already blaming each other for a government shutdown that hasn't happened yet (and doesn't have to if people would get their act together), and in Wisconsin, Democratic State Senators have apparently left the state to boycott a vote on union/budget bill.

Instead of casting blame, let's talk sense. Republicans want massive cuts, Democrats want fewer cuts. Is there no way to find middle ground? Doesn't the responsibility of governing fall on both parties? Is it really impossible for the House to pass a budget that the Senate will approve? I only mention the Republican controlled House first because it seems the house passes EVERY bill first then sends it to the Senate. But the Senate could do something too. Republicans have vowed to cut $100 billion from the budget, but that's a bad idea and everyone knows it. John Boehner's callous remark "so be it," when told that such cuts would cost thousands of jobs shows his disdain and also the hypocrisy of preaching job creation with cuts that would cost jobs. Nevertheless, Republicans are right that we need to trim some spending and there are smart ways to do that. There are programs that can and should be shown the door, and Democrats need to be more receptive to budget cuts.

Most importantly, the two sides need to come together now because whether they cut $100 billion or $0 from this budget, neither is going to matter if they can't find a way to fix the real budget busters: Social Security, Medicare and the Military. So finding common ground on some small cuts now would go a long way towards establishing the trust needed to do the real work later.

The situation in Wisconsin is even worse. The bill before the state legislature wants to significantly raise the amount that teachers contribute to both their health insurance and their retirement plans. On the one hand it's silly to pretend like that is going to fix the whole budget issue in Wisconsin. On the other hand, it will do some good. The bill calls for a raise from 0.2% to 5.8% for teacher contributions to pensions, and a raise from 4%-6% to 12.6% for contributions to teacher health insurance. Maybe those numbers are a little high, maybe they're not, but is neither side willing to negotiate? Has the situation gotten so bad that Democrats really need to flee the state? The bill also includes a provision that would ban collective bargaining for the unions, which is clearly nothing but an attempt to curb union power. If Republicans are serious about this being a budget bill and not a union bill, why not scrap that clause? Teachers can and should pay more for their benefits, but they shouldn't lose the right to collectively bargain. There's room for a compromise here. Republicans should scrap the union-busting plan and Democrats should accept the rising contributions. It's really that simple.

But something has gotten in the way. Maybe it's politics, maybe it's overheated rhetoric, or maybe it's just simply that we've all forgotten about actually making America better and instead have entrenched ourselves in our own bubbles.

Whatever the reason, we need to snap out of it. We can't trim $100 billion from the federal budget without wreaking havoc on the economy. We can't afford not to trim anything. There's a middle ground between $0 and $100 billion. We can't afford to pay incredible pensions to public employees, but we also can't blame our fiscal crisis entirely on those pensions, and we certainly shouldn't trick ourselves into thinking that banning the right to collectively bargain is going to close any budget gaps.

It's time to get our act together, otherwise we're going to have no teachers, no money and no government. That's a grim picture.