I applaud the new Republican commitment to indiscriminate across-the-board spending cuts and budget rollbacks. Now it's my family's turn to answer the call. After all, how often have I heard my little American family and our kitchen table budget discussions invoked? How often has it been noted that my American family must, by necessity, make the hard choices to "clean up our balance sheet?" So, inspired by Republican discipline, my family has decided to institute our own across the board spending cuts.
My spouse and I started the ball rolling by both receiving generous 15% pay cuts last year, but I know we can do better. I know we can easily squeeze another 5% out of our bloated household budget. After all, last night around the kitchen table we marveled at all the waste, fraud, and abuse in our finances. Yes, I know this will be tough, but we've all got to sacrifice, we've all got to pull together, we've all got to be adults in this time of fiscal crisis. So, here's what we've got so far:
- We've decided to trim 20% from our mortgage payment.
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- We've decided to trim 20% from our student loan payments.
- We've decided to trim 20% from our car registration fees.
- We've decided to trim 20% from our car, house, medical, dental, and vision insurance bills.
- We've decided to trim 20% from our kid's school costs. (Question: is there any reason my daughter needs "shoes" to run cross country and track? Can't she just run in her flip-flops?)
- We've decided to trim 20% from our car payment.
- We've decided to trim 20% from our property tax bill.
And we've only just begun! (The internet is so fantastic, right now I'm researching low cost alternatives to rice and beans.) Yes, this will require shared sacrifice, but I know I can count on Sallie-Mae, Wells Fargo, HSBC, State Farm Insurance, the State Board of Equalization, The Department of Motor Vehicles, Blue Cross, and all my other partners (who, after all, assure me with every collections phone call that they're "just here to help") to accept our reductions and work together in a spirit of cooperation and shared responsibility. It's just the right thing to do.