This is how a budget works.

You have a certain amount of money that you take in, your income. Out of that income you have to pay for all the necessities. Food, shelter, transport, communications, looking after your pet, things like that. If you have anything left over then you can spend it on non-essential items like a movie, or treating yourself to a nice meal, or hookers and blow. Whatever your thing is (and I reckon most of Congress is more into the third option than the first two).

If two people are in charge of the budget, then they have to work out between them what constitutes an essential item, and what is frivolous. To keep it simple and adhere to gender sterotypes, Dad wants to play golf and Mum has a thing for shoes. And the kids get piano lessons and playstations. Now, if income allows, both get to do this and everyone is happy, although Dad thinks those new pumps are ugly and Mum doesn't get why hitting a tiny ball 70+ times around a lawn is fun. But when there isn't enough money to do these things as much as they'd like, well, then they cut back. Dad plays every other week, and Mum only gets one pair a month instead of the two or three she'd like. And the kids get recorder lessons and they miss out on one of the generations of Call of Duty.

What they don't do is stop buying food. Or shelter. And what they really don't do is ask their bosses for a pay cut. Hell, they don't even ask their bosses for a pay cut when things are great and they have enough money to save up a little, or pay off some debt.

And what they really don't do is start blaming each other and calling each other names and trying to get the kids to hate the other parent.

And what they really really don't do is start taking bribes from one kid to keep the playstation but get rid of piano lessons because little Johnnie doesn't seem to be as fond of you as the other parent.. Not if they're good parents, and decent people.

This is the simplest way I can put it for you, our corporate-sponsored representatives. But just in case you don't get it, in the above example you're Mum and Dad, and we're the children. Income is taxes. Food and shelter and communication are the part of the social contract that comes as a part of being in a country. Golf is military spending, and shoes are investment in infrastructure . Playstations are tax breaks for corporations earning record profits, and pianos are foodstamps.

Make sense?

I just hate that I've framed it in terms that has you as the parents and us as the children, because gods know you're the ones acting like petulant children. You're the ones pretending that sticking your fingers in your ears is a good way to communicate, you're the ones trying to blame your sister for the felt pen scribblings on the wall even though you have blue smudges on your fingers.

If we are the children though, then maybe we can apply for emancipation. Maybe we can get away from our bickering parents, and find a nice foster home. One with parents who don't fight all the time, and blame each other for their own shortcomings, who understand how a budget, or a fucking country, is supposed to work.