Ten Reasons I Hate Politics and One Reason I Don’t - Part 4

4.  I Bet You A Trillion Dollars I Can Spend More Money Than You

At one time, it seemed there were at least a few politicians who took balancing the federal budget seriously. Today, those type of people would be laughed out of DC. “You believe WHAT?” To be fair, much of the problem stems from the citizenry. People want way too much from their government and aren’t willing to pay for it. We want low taxes and high spending. Hey, I want that too, but you know what, IT WON’T WORK! And because we want so much for so little, oftentimes the candidate that gets elected is the one that promises to provide the most. Basically, we have become a nation of debtors, living beyond our means in so many ways.

Think about it. What does it mean for our country to be nearly $20 trillion in debt? Well, at its base level, it means that our country has bought $20 trillion of stuff that we couldn’t afford.

In 2015, our federal government took in about $3.3 trillion in revenue; the highest amount in history. This would be like a person who makes $33,000 a year owing the bank $200,000. You might say, “There are plenty of people like that given many people have mortgages, car loans, and credit card debt.” Yes, but hold your horses, partner. Most people take out these loans and then start paying them back out of their income stream without borrowing any more. But not the federal government. In 2015, they borrowed $440 billion to make up for their shortfall. That would be like our theoretical person who earns $33,000 and owes $200,000 borrowing another $4,400. And then continuing to borrow that much year after year.

But wait, you say. The federal deficit is coming down. Eventually it will be zero and maybe go into a surplus. THEN, we can start paying off that debt. To that I say in a gravelly Steven Tyler voice, “Dream on.” When has THAT ever happened? Well, actually it did happen to a small extent back at the end of the Bill Clinton presidency and the beginning of the George W. Bush presidency. We actually ran a modest surplus for four years. But the problem is that when politicians get a whiff of extra money, a spending zeitgeist kicks in and they start adding new programs or spending more on existing ones rather than paying down the debt. Then suddenly, to everyone’s seeming surprise, all that extra money is gone and they have to start borrowing again. It seems to be a never-ending cycle. A deficit reincarnation scheme. Each time our leaders are naughty, they are reincarnated as even naughtier leaders. Given this scenario, our nation will never reach debt-free Nirvana.

To see the problem, all you have to do is listen to a typical politician’s speech. It will go something like this: “Yes, we need to reduce the nation’s debt. (blah, blah, blah) We need to have free college for students. We need to have free healthcare for all. We need to have the most powerful military in the world. And so on, and so on, and so on, almost ad infinitum.

Occasionally, some spaced-out reporter will actually challenge these politicians by asking how they will pay for all those programs while at the same time paying down the debt. And the answer is almost always, “Well, under my leadership, the nation’s economy will grow by leaps and bounds, increasing the tax base, thus bringing in more revenue. Why, we’ll have so much money flowing into the federal treasury, we won’t know what to do with it.” Uh, we all know that’s a lie. Politicians ALWAYS know what to do with extra money.

If asked whether it’s a good idea for the federal government to get involved in all those new programs, the answers will be something like this:

“The American people deserve it.”

“It is every American’s right.”

“We can’t afford NOT to pay for those things.”

"We're the richest nation on Earth. Why not?"

“We’ll save so much money having the government manage this program rather than the private sector, it’ll pay for itself.”

To all of those statements I respond with that famous double positive that means a negative, “Yeah, right!”

Folks, nothing is going to change until “We The People” begin to realize that we can no longer live beyond our means and start voting for fiscally conservative politicians. Otherwise, bye-bye country.