And that's the key issue.How do you determine what is essential and what isn't?

Take the cowboy poetry festival. The tourism money that generates is essential to many people, some earning enough off that one event to cover living expenses for months. Those people will tell you that government funding of the event is essential for them to survive. Others see it as an entitlement. I'm not saying it is or isn't an entitlement, just using as an example of how difficult the decisions are.

>I have to. That is why we have to cut all non-essential spending and have some entitlement reform.