“Congress is boring. Budgets put me to sleep. Deficits? I yawn. I get mad about all the taxes I pay. I don’t see what all that money buys me. The stock market goes up, or down. Who cares?

I’ve got my job, my house, my car and all that. Credit card payments are going up but so what. I enjoy my big screen TV, my cell phone and e-mail keep me connected, and I can’t resist the latest gadget.

I'm more worried about a home invasion by kids doing drugs in my neighborhood than I am about a terror attack here in the ‘burgh.

So what if Grandma’s social security runs dry. We'll take care of her. I dropped my health care when the rates went up – but I’m healthy as a horse. My daughter's school loan does put a crimp in my style, but maybe I’ll get a raise.

I do need to work overtime to keep up, and I don’t see my kids as much as I’d like. But all in all, things are OK. I get by. I may have to work a few years longer before I retire, but that’s a long way away.”

Well, friend, all that is about to change. On the day the attack on Iraq began, a sneak attack was underway in our nation’s capital. The federal budget was being hijacked as we watched bombs fall on Baghdad.

In the name of stimulating a stalled economy, Congress rushed through a ten-year budget plan. Despite deficits, massive tax cuts for the rich means that we'll be paying a bigger share and getting less in return.

Half the taxpayers will get less than $100 in tax cuts while they - we - pay more while programs are cut.

You’re a vet or waving the flag for our troops? Mr. Bush’s plan cut deeply into veterans’ programs, just as new ones are being created. Less for student loans will add to young people's burden of debt

State budgets in crisis, but they not only get no help, but Pennsylvania loses $4.4 billion for the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicaid.

The state has lost over 85,000 jobs over the past two years says the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This translates into lower tax revenues, our public transportation in crisis, and funds for state programs go down just when the need is rising.

Elderly and disabled people will see cuts in their SSI program. Low-income families who rely on food stamps, school lunches, childcare, or foster care and adoption assistance along with the Earned Income Tax Credit lose out in a big way.

With the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank now stretched to provide food for 120,000 people a month [37,000 under 18 and 16,000 over 65] how will we as a community respond to a growing demand for basic nutrition?

I’ve said nothing about the threat that enormous and growing deficits pose to our Social Security system or to the need to provide health insurance, prescription drugs or housing.

The business oriented Committee for Economic Development addressed the deficit problem on March 5th:

“…a fiscal crisis threatens our future standard of living, Deficits do matter. They lower future economic growth by reducing the level of national savings that can be devoted to productive investments. They raise interest rates. They raise interest payments on the national debt. They reduce the flexibility to deal with unexpected developments. If we do not take action now to bring burgeoning deficits under control, we will create the first generation of Americans less well off than their predecessors."

The CED says, “all options should be on the table---even the politically difficult option of scaling back or canceling some of the prospective tax cuts enacted in 2001.”

Yet just one local Congressman, Rep. Mike Doyle, voted “nay” to this outrageous plan to de-fund programs that benefit the common good with unjust tax cuts.

Reps. Melissa Hart, Tim Murphy and Phil English voted for the Budget Resolution. Both Senators Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum voted a version that looks somewhat better compared to the House bill.

Congress may indeed be boring. If it continues on the present path it will be boring into the very lifeblood of our nation, risking our future and our children's. This is a wakeup call, yinz guys.