Spend, Spend, Spend

Once again I am wrong. I just found out. I have been told I am wrong by no less authority than the President of the United States. That is so humbling. I, and many like me, thought that the country, well the administration, has a spending problem. The President has announced that there is no spending problem. I guess we just do not supply him with enough of other peoples money to support his habit.

Some years ago, back when one would get at least two credit card offers a day in the mail, I knew a man who just loved those cards. He owned a modestly successful small business. He drove a big car and wore an iconic wristwatch. He and his wife were always expensively dressed.  Not necessarily in good taste, but expensively. He and his wife took the most wonderful vacations. He enjoyed dining out with friends and picking up the check. Apparently, he felt that his business could run itself. He would leave it behind, traveling around town to visit other business people and spread his version of bonhomie.

At last report, he sported something like twenty-three credit cards. I knew this man but I didn't know him well. I was on the very edge of his circle of friends. But I was quite friendly with people that were close to him. I commented to them one time about how Jake's (not his real name) business must be doing very well. My friends answer was, " he has twenty-three credit cards and every one is maxed out. He's broke". He didn't have a spending problem, he had an insufficiency of credit cards problem.

Shortly after this conversation Jake disappeared from the local scene. I later found out he went bankrupt. This came as no surprise. Some people find it easy to become addicted. Some addictions are benign most are not. I'm addicted to books. I read incessantly unless I must do something else, like write my blog. That is pretty benign. Booze and drugs are devastating addictions. Spending, when you are the President of the United States, is an addiction that can destroy our economy.

It is the job of the Congress to control the excesses of a president. That is particularly true of the House of Representatives. They hold the purse strings and, with only two year terms, are supposed to be close to the citizens that elect them. Unfortunately we have a Senate that would support the President if he wanted to sell Hawaii and, unfortunately, we are saddled with a House of Representatives that has no sense of direction and very little backbone.

The administration is out of control. I do not see anything in the immediate future but for things to get worse. We are not under taxed. We are over taxed, over spent, over managed, and over regulated. If the administration keeps to the course they are on, we will have no recovery and possibly no country as we knew it.