We're awash in a sea of talking points

As the political season heats up, I find myself awash with talking points from many conservatives regarding balanced budgets and the allocation of funds. This misses the point of the point of discussion and only disguises the real reasons we should be having these conversations.

Too often we hear of education or infrastructure of whatever program in terms of dollars and cents. If the program isn’t running a profit, it is somehow “bad” and needs to be reduced or cut. Now, I’m not one to advocate starting programs and not accounting for the funding of the programs, but talking about them only in terms of money isn’t doing us any good. The real question we should be asking ourselves is: “Is this something that we’re willing to pay for?”

A great example is education. We can all argue until we’re blue in the face about budgeting money for education for our children. But for me, an admittedly liberal guy, I am less interested in making a balance sheet look pretty for my conservative counterparts, and more interested in making sure children are properly educated. We should fund what works, not what is cheapest. This is too important to skimp on.

Education, infrastructure, and other programs are important. They also cost money. We lose sight of the reason we started these programs, and the good they do, when we are more worried about saving dollars instead of making the programs do what they are supposed to do.

JASON BENELL

Sandpoint