Does anyone else have a problem with way the government spends money? Our legislators are still proposing budgets with more than a trillion dollar annual deficit. A trillion dollars is a heck of a lot of money, about $3195 for every man, woman and child in America. (The latest census says that there are 313,000,000 of us.) The national debt stands at over 15.5 trillion dollars right now and continues to rise as Congress continues to spend more than we take in. Our share of this debt amounts to about $49,000 per person. Congress evidently doesn't care how deep the hole is - they have a hot shovel and they have to keep digging!
Someone sent me an e-mail with an interesting look at how the government is handling its finances. Here it is - but obviously the information was gathered sometime last year. You will get the point.
- U.S. tax revenue $2,170,000,000,000
- Federal budget $3820,000,000,000
- New debt $1,650,000,000,000
- National debt $14,271,000,000,000
- Recent budget cuts $38,500,000,000
Let's now remove eight zeroes and pretend it's a household budget.
- Annual family income $21,700
- Money the family spent $38,200
- New debt on the credit card $16,500
- Outstanding balance on the credit card $142,710
- Total budget cuts $385
The family would be in deep trouble; our government is in deep trouble. It is unbelievable to me that our representatives in Washington can be so irresponsible. Oh, well, it's not their money they are spending, it's ours. What do they care? Congressman Paul Ryan just proposed a budget that will not begin to reduce the national debt until 2040 - is that the best we can do??
So far I've been railing on the problem, and true to form, I have a solution. In the upcoming elections, we need to make sure that any candidate we vote for supports a balanced budget amendment. It means they will have to work a lot harder when they get to Washington, and obviously we the citizens will have to get by on a little less "help" from the government. Remember, anything that is wrong with our government has been made that way by the people we sent to Washington.
Maybe this upcoming election will change everything. I won't hold my breath.
