Cut this, cut that...How about keep this, if it works, and add this, as an improvement...

A quick post for a busy month...

I just watched ABC's This Week news program and, for what I think is the second week in a row, there was no "In Memoriam" segment. That segment usually provides a quick review of the famous people who died during the previous week. It is a way of memorializing a historical or cultural figure and informing the rest of us about their passing as well as their achievements.

As much as I appreciate the show's attempt to cover the democracy revolutions now occurring in the Middle East countries--certainly an important subject--I still liked the short "In Memoriam" segments that no other TV news had.

Instead, I had to endure an extra minute or two of Republican governors blabbering at a round-table about budget cuts. Budget cuts are a ridiculous subject ever since the Congress failed to cut the tax breaks for the very wealthy. Now politicians and news media want us to believe that there is serious intent for cutting budgets? Give me a break!

For the minute that I had to listen to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer say that government is "a necessary evil," I could have been learning something factual about the nation and world.

I would add that just as it is not likely that it is a wise idea for a football team to be headed by a coach who hates football or a farm to be run by a farmer who hates farming or a school to be managed by a principal who hates education, why in the hell do we have to put up with politicians who hate government but then want to run it? They will run it all right. And likely right into the ground.

Budget-cutting won't bring about good jobs. Good jobs--not Wal-Mart or McDonalds jobs, by the way--are the key to driving a healthy economy. When Gov. Walker of Wisconsin wants to eliminate collective bargaining and make unions in this nation weaker, that is not going to help the nation in the long-run.

The politicians can cut till the cows come home and probably will, but that won't create jobs, make for a better society, or improve the economy, any more than buying a car made in Japan will. Creating jobs and buying products made in the country and town where you live will impact and improve the nation's economy. Everything else is meringue and baloney. If they aren't careful, the budget-cutting will just lead to a recession or even a depression.

But if someone would be so wise as to put some regulations and limits on runaway corporations who have "socialized their losses" but "privatized their profits" as author Michael Lewis noted in his book "The Big Short," then that would also certainly be a step in the right direction.

I know I covered a lot of territory here. From the small to the large. But it's all about framing and ideas. Keep it, if it works or if it has been a promise to people, such as with pensions, and add it if it's an improvement. If "cutting" is the only part of the mentality, then spiraling down in quality, content, accomplishment, progress, and the future will be the outcome.