With the current federal budget ending March 4, the debate is on for our future federal budget to be settled and there is good news and bad news coming from Washington, D.C.

The good news is that our Republican-controlled House vote came through on Friday, Feb. 18, to strip federal money from Planned Parenthood, Obama Health Care and prevention of the Environmental Protection Agency from issuing global warming regulations. That is fantastic news as it is sensible to cut back on these programs used to strip our liberties away.

The bad news is the federal budget is still being debated in small petty amounts. Both the Republicans and the Democrats have their own agenda for the budget and both agendas don’t really get to the matter at hand. The difficult part of all this is that the average citizen can’t keep up with what is really going on; it’s all so confusing.

We hear news of letters circulated from Social Security Administration and the congressional Democrats who threatened that cuts to Social Security would shut down offices and delay benefit payments.

Then there was the news of Republicans pushing a huge spending bill through the House that would impose deep cuts on domestic programs and specific cuts in federal agencies’ funding over the second half of the budget year ending on September 30th.

With the Republicans wanting to cut spending about $60 billion below last year’s level and the Democrats wanting to spend way more than our federal budget is worth, we won’t know what the outcome will really be until months down the road.

Cutting all of the foreign spending and some of the domestic spending is wise. We don’t need to send our hard earned money to foreign countries when we need to balance our own budget and get our own economy back on track. We really don’t need more Homeland Security body scanners to harass Americans in our airports. We really don’t need those people living in our country illegally to obtain welfare benefits. We don’t need more budget for more regulations funding given to the Federal Communications Commission. Most definitely we don’t need more work on an alternative engine for the F-35, the Pentagon’s baby for the next generation warplane. This reminds me of an old adage which goes for all of us: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”

As the news goes, if a decision can’t be made soon, a temporary spending bill will be needed to avoid a government shutdown. A shutdown might be the best thing going. The whole experience might bring to light what is really important in our government spending: getting our economy running smoothly with every citizen working. Then maybe our country will become strong again in this unstable world of finance.

Loxley resident Valerie J. Steimle is now the author of four books. Her latest, “Dogs, Blogs and Hobbits: Writings from a Widow’s Perspective” is available on Amazon.com. Contact her at valeriesteimle@yahoo.com, visit her website at www.stregthenyourhome.com or check out her blog at www.valeriesteimle.blogspot.com.