Debt Ceiling…

Does anyone really believe that the “concessions” Speaker Boehner is talking about will be realized? What confidence should we have with the republican leadership that has shown that they lack the fortitude to manage a budget by their past actions? They were very happy garnering the Tea Party vote to get another chance at the helm but the Tea Party has little patience for more budget shenanigans.


We just added a Trillion dollars to the budget deficit in the last year. We should cut a Trillion dollars this year. I agree we need to pay our bills but there are bills that if reduced now would make paying the debt service doable.

I am having a hard time understanding how we add a Trillion in debt but the answer is to cut a $100 billion? I am no mathematician but we added a thousand billion and we are cutting 100 billion and we are good? Something is not adding up on my calculator.

The federal “budget” is $3.5 trillion give or take a billion. First, a budget in the private sector usually bases its spending and investment on the revenue coming in the door. But the federal government doesn’t really care that taking in $2.5 trillion and spending $3.5 trillion doesn’t add up. They have our credit card to borrow the deficit so balance be damned. The math is easy so why can’t we just balance the budget?

The biggest problem is that about 60% of the budget is redistribution of wealth. That means that the federal government is taking dollars from some of us and giving it to others through Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, both personal and corporate, Education, Social Security (even though some have paid in - the way it is run is wealth transfer), and a million little programs that would take a thousand pages to list. What does it all mean? That 60% of the budget battle will pit one group against another.

Even if we balanced the budget in 2011, the debt that has been created by the federal government (yes under both republicans and democrats) has to be paid with the promised interest. But raising the debt ceiling is yet another temporary measure. It puts off a few more years the inevitable fact that we are spending too much on federal largesse.

The debt ceiling is being used as another tool by politicians unwilling to make the hard decisions they need to make. If the politicians offered up a balanced budget by making the necessary cuts, the debt ceiling would no longer be the argument, we would be able to pay the debt. The debt has an exponential effect and we need to get the deficit to 0 before we can dent our debt obligation.

The debt ceiling offers the politicians another escape hatch. It is time to face this crisis head on. Our children deserve a real solution and a balanced budget. We created this mess; we need to fix it…

The Irresponsible Generation…

The current administration is a reflection of the worst traits of what I call the irresponsible generation. We had the greatest generation that sacrificed everything to make a better life for their kids and future generations of Americans only to see its spoils flushed down the national toilet. The lessons learned by the greatest generation have been lost on the irresponsible generation.

Discipline and fiscal responsibility have been completely abandoned for this me, now; live like there is no tomorrow administration that is made up of people that believe in living for today, and that credit is the only way to get your stuff in life. We have seen the results and they are grim.

We are mired in a debt to other nations that have for most of our history been our enemies. Without the “investment” of these recent enemies we might have a run on the bank. We might have to suffer the pain of actually paying a bill or two on time. Without our enemies we might have to make the hard decisions to cut back on spending rather than continue the irresponsible policies. Imagine how hard it might be if we asked people to save 20% before purchasing a home? The hardship. What if we asked the people running the government to end programs that are no longer necessary? The hardship. What if we ran our government according to the constitution? Outrageous! Instead we rely on our enemies to fund our irresponsible behavior but we must ask; what does our enemy expect in return? Who cares as long as the irresponsible regime can keep up the rosy façade of a system that is fundamentally bankrupt?

The first hint that a candidate might address the Social Security shortfall or the Medicare entitlement they are targeted as mean spirited and anti senior. The fact is that most of the elderly already on Social Security and those close to retirement have nothing to fear except the irresponsible generations answer to do nothing. The future generations are being bankrupted by the current irresponsible generation because they are ignoring practical solutions so the entire system doesn’t go bankrupt. The same goes for every government program. We have to reform them before the entire system goes bankrupt and still the irresponsible generation wants to do nothing.

We have two wars going on in faraway lands with the irresponsible generation in charge of the outcomes of these wars. The irresponsible thing to do is ignore them and this administration is doing a great job at just that. The irresponsible generation has been spoiled and has been brought up being saved by their elders. The problem is they are now the elders. It would be nice if they realized that but that would mean taking responsibility.

The responsibility for fixing all of this will be left to the next generation if we survive as a nation. The next generation will have no one to look to for guidance because they will have been left no choice but to be responsible. They will be the generation that ends up cleaning up the mess at their own expense. I hope the irresponsible generation remembers this when the next generation stops paying their bills…

That is a sorry legacy to be part of…