In these days of steroid-using athletes and baby-daddy presidential aspirants, let's take a moment to salute the Boy Scouts. What the Scouts stand for, this country badly needs.

 

Today is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Boy Scouts of America, an organization designed to provide an educational program for boys and young men to build character, to train in the responsibilities of participating citizenship and to develop personal fitness. To mark the milestone, the organization has launched a year-long celebration.

 

That celebration should shine a well-deserved light on what the Boy Scouts do for this country and what scouting does for the boys who become Scouts. Consider these statistics:

 

In 2008, more than 2.8 million youth members and nearly 1.2 million volunteers gave 35,194,360 hours to service projects. The money value of that time? More than $712 million.

 

Since the group was founded, Scouts have earned more than 115 million merit pages. Merit badges most often were earned for first aid, swimming, camping, cooking and citizenship.

 

It's hardly surprising that those and other skills Scouts learned have proved invaluable to them as adults. Many attribute their success in part to the scouting experience. Baseball great Hank Aaron has said scouting was the greatest positive influence in his life. Others on the scouting roll? New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, singer Jimmy Buffett, newsman Walter Cronkite, actor Harrison Ford and a slew of presidents. More than half the U.S. astronauts were Scouts. More than a third of West Point cadets were Scouts.

 

Scouting wasn't an American idea. It began in England, created by Gen. Robert Baden-Powell, who discovered young boys were using a military book he had written as a guide to outdoor activities. So he converted his army scouting for men to "peaceful scouting" for boys.

 

American businessman William Boyce stumbled on it when he was visiting London and got lost in the fog. A young boy found Boyce and led him to his destination. Boyce offered to tip him but the boy refused, saying he was a Scout and could not accept payment for a "good turn." Boyce was intrigued, talked to Baden-Powell and found the Boy Scouts of America the next year.

 

Being a Boy Scout doesn't guarantee a life of integrity as an adult. But the Boy Scouts have amassed a solid record of helping shape upstanding and civic-minded adults who care about their communities and work to make them better.

 

Boy Scouts help not just in their local communities. Right now, they are involved in relief efforts to aid the earthquake victims in Haiti. Last week, they launched a project to provide tents and sleeping bags to Haitian people who have been displaced from their homes.

 

The attributes that describe a Scout -- "trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent" -- sound like a Hallmark card. But they are attributes still worthy of aspiring to. Happy Birthday, Boy Scouts of America.

 

--Charlotte (NC) Observer

 

 

Supporters of the first federal budget submitted under President Barack Obama say he's got his priorities straight, with more spending for education, clean energy and jobs creation. Critics points to its sheer size -- $3.8 trillion, with a $1.2 trillion deficit -- with shock.

 

Both are right. Frankly, the latter is more right than the former. Problem is, the budget critics don't go beyond indignation to problem-solving.

 

That's because the budget has become a beast that is beyond taming, at least in the short-attention-span time frames and free-lunch attitude America is addicted to.

 

The budget has modest cuts, calling for a freeze on some domestic spending designed to save $250 billion. Sadly, there's little wiggle room beyond that.

 

Nearly two-thirds of the $3.8 trillion is locked into mandatory spending for Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and financing the debt. Toss in $768.2 billion in defense and war-fighting funds, an unemployment rate of 10 percent that means less revenue and more social spending, and there's virtually no room left to maneuver. The situation is further complicated by the fact many critics have demonstrated they don't want to maneuver.

 

Nearly $800 billion in the budget is dedicated to health care spending, a figure that will surely rise over the years if we don't do anything to reform that spending. That's a certainty. Yet, reform efforts have been bloodied and could be dead. While the cost-saving measures in various bills can be debated, the option currently being taken is guaranteed higher costs. That means more red ink down the road.

 

Look at those who are decrying the expiration of tax cuts for couples earning more than $250,000. The cuts were passed under George W. Bush in part because they carried the "sunset'' provision calling for their end in 2010. This isn't a new tax grab, it's the plan as presented in 2001. But it's an easy campaign issue, even though not allowing the sunset will add still more red ink down the road if defeated. Given the polarized political climate, it will be instructive to see if even normally popular measures such as a proposed $5,000 per-job tax credit for firms hiring new workers will make headway.

 

This budget carries with it projections of a national debt topping $12.5 trillion, or about $180,000 for a family of four. And that is essentially a best-case scenario. The deficit will ease if more people get jobs. Should the recovery stall or reverse, the deficit will get worse. The president faces a tough balancing act between running up red ink and making sure the economy doesn't tank.

 

But he's only part of the equation. Congress is the other. Democrats, having been given the reins of power, don't seem to know what to do with them. Republicans, hoping for a change in fortunes come November, are content to sit on their hands.

 

It's easy to dither, posture and criticize. But someone has to govern.

 

Those in Congress who aren't inclined to do so shouldn't run in the first place. And shouldn't be given an opportunity to continue doing so come November.

 

--Asheville Citizens Times