.............. It's all designed so that the politicians have a campaign item to sell.
I agree with that but I think it's worse than that. It is my observation that greedy, self-serving politicians sacrifice the public good, break the faith of those willing to sacrifice for the public good, and contribute to chaos by offering up those persons (which everyone rightfully wants to support and see do well) as the
nation's most common form of extortion, taxation, to force the "little people" who work to pay for the politician's mostly unfettered vote buying.
Social programs, mostly a tool consistently misused to garner political support...i.e., buy votes.
Extortion. Plain and simple. Please do not misinterpret, I believe that thieves, rapists and murders are vermin to be rounded up but in a national sense the real criminals., the enablers (those people who would misuse their public office for the most common form of extorion in the U.S.) are the politicians. It is the "real" criminal, the vote buying self-serving politician, that puts the nation most at risk of failure.
I hear a lot of people wanting to sweep out the no good politicians...but their boy is a good ole boy, you know...so we keep these slugs in. I for one do not believe every person in office should be voted out wholesale for there are good and faithful among us or we would have gone down some time ago...but those who would suggest and purport that laying off police, fireman and teachers in lieu of other cuts makes it obvious that the public's best interest is not in the mind of that person.