This article from Alternet.org details the devastating real-life impacts of state and local budget cuts. Tennessee's recurring budget shortfalls have been with us even in times of national prosperity, and the underlying cause is our regressive tax structure that maintains wealth disparities and is structurally designed so there is never adequate revenue to fund our vital public structures. That's great for those who think privatization is the solution, but I would much prefer to have the services and benefits we all enjoy from our tax dollars provided by our government that is accountable to us all.
An excerpt:
Politicians, the media and the power elite tell us that state and local government budget shortfalls are the result of lavish compensation packages paid to teachers, police officers and firefighters along with "entitlements" such as Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. The truth is that the economic crisis, sparked by decades of deregulation and greedy financial firms, caused high levels of unemployment that dramatically reduced state and local tax revenues. Add to that years of tax cuts for the wealthy and decades of corporate tax-dodging, and you've got yourself a budget crisis.
Conservatives clearly intend to exploit budget crises to starve government. And some Democratic politicians are also cutting services to balance their budgets. In their quest to render government incapable of providing for its citizens, conservatives, with the help of their fellow acquiescing Democrats, are exacting an irreversible and deadly toll that has gone largely ignored by the mainstream press. So it is up to us to bring attention to the disastrous consequences austerity has wrought.To read more:
http://www.alternet.org/story/151275/death_by_budget_cut%3A_why_conservatives_and_some_dems_have_blood_on_their_hands
