Thoughts Aloud

This whole debt ceiling debacle is stuck on stupid. That is, progress seems stuck and they think we are stupid.

OK – so we are.

But they should still not treat us so shabbily. Like lying to us every time any of them says anything. It would be so very refreshing for just one senator or congressperson to come on to just one taking-head program and tell the honest truth. Really, is that too much to ask?

Yes, evidently it is too much to ask.

Instead, we are offered the most incredible stories. Last update, I heard that Boehner was offering a $1 trillion debt ceiling increase in return for $1.5 trillion in spending reductions over the next 10 years.

It is not bad enough that $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years actually equals $150 billion per year. No, the really bad part is that this is an offer to “trade” a REAL and IMMEDIATE $1 trillion debt ceiling increase for $150 billion in purely IMAGINARY “cuts”.

Did I say $150 Billion in cuts? That is correct. Presumably, they cut $150 billion in year 1 of the 10 year period, and, after 10 years, it adds up to $1.5 trillion. But wait – it gets better. Actual spending will have to go up around $75 billion per year to pay the interest on that additional $1 trillion they will have borrowed. Pure insanity. And, this insanity is coming from the folks who claim to be on our side!

Among other insane proposals I have heard is a full $2.5 trillion in debt ceiling increase in return for an immediate $2.5 trillion cut in spending. Am I the only one to wonder why, if we immediately cut spending by $2.5 trillion that we would need to also borrow and additional $2.5 trillion? What the hell for??

Now I don’t know about you folks but, I did not find the decade of the 1990’s to be an especially bad time. Employment was good, the economy was good, GHW Bush and Bill Clinton had not yet totally killed the Reagan economic boom. All in all, not a bad time to be alive and American.

Yet today we are led to believe that going back to the government spending levels of the 1990’s (adjusted for inflation, of course), would be an unmitigated disaster. If this is true, then why weren’t the 1990’s and unmitigated disaster? What new and vital requirement for more government spending has occurred since then? The wars? No problem – just stop them. Anyway, outrageous as the wars are, they alone do not account for the massive spending increases that we now supposedly cannot exist without.

Then what was it? I know I am getting old but I simply cannot remember picking up the newspaper each morning in the 1990’s and reading about the multitudes of Americans who had died at the hospital doorsteps, who had starved, who were going naked for the lack of money for clothing. Indeed, I don’t even remember reading that very many of us were going without color TVs and automobiles.

So, what is different now? What is it that requires us to spend so much more? Simple. The looters, those who raid the federal treasury with impunity, want an ever larger share. And, evidently our elected officials are simply unable – and unwilling — to say no.

Well then, since we obviously are having no success licking them, lets join them. Since our government is so enamored of entitlement systems, consider quitting your job and then applying for every form of payment the government offers (after stockpiling a good supply of water, food and ammunition of course – and, if you have any savings, you will want to convert them to silver and gold first).

Darned if this does not seem like the beginnings of a plan. Don’t get violent, don’t walk the streets waving silly signs – in a word, don’t do anything. Period. Just sit there with both hands out demanding more, more, more and be in the way as much as possible. I suspect we all possess the talent required to do that. When can we start?

Troy L Robinson

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