Bingeing

by
Suzann Darnall

I cannot open a bag of potato chips without thinking of one company's famous ad campaign line, "Betcha can't eat just one." 'Cause let's face it, when it comes to potato chips, most folks . . . in fact everyone I can think of . . . can't eat just one. Many of us are hard put not to polish off an entire bag, and I'm not talking the snack-size here!

Well, I have come to realize that our government is pretty much the same way. They can't spend just one dollar, when there are more dollars available. Just like that bag of potato chips laying there open on the kitchen counter that so many of us can't pass by without grabbing "just one more" (until the bag is empty), our government will spend until there are no dollars left, then look for more ways to get dollars to keep on spending. The same way someone might go look in the pantry to see if there's another bag of chips when the one on the counter is empty.

The problem is, so far as our government is concerned, there are no more chips in the pantry. So far as dollars go, the cupboard is bare. A far bigger problem is that our government is not above raiding the neighbor's pantry in their quest for more potato chips . . . uh, dollars. They are borrowing obscene amounts of money and piling up monstrous debts that at present seem to be beyond our ability to pay back. We are literally stealing from our children, grandchildren, and as yet unborn generations. We are eliminating their prospects of a prosperous country and a secure future.

Well, I for one think we need to wise up and send our government officials to the equivalent of Weight Watchers or Overeaters Anonymous. In short, we need to put them on a budgetary diet and force them to get fiscally fit! No more pigging out at the trough of taxpayers' revenue. It isn't healthy for our economy to continue to carry such a bloated debts and deficits.

Citizens need to take charge of this and insist on cutbacks happening. Our government officials have demonstrated over and over again that they have absolutely no will power when it comes to spending. They simply cannot say no to adding just a hundred thousand here or a measly million there or maybe a billion or so somewhere else. After all, it's not like it is actually real money (in their eyes anyway) until the amounts are in the trillions.

Oh, wait a minute; the amounts ARE actually in the trillions! Our national debt is fast approaching $17 trillion. Federal annual spending is nearly $4 trillion. The biggest problem with what our government is spending is that we are borrowing over $1.75 trillion of that amount each year, which means we pay interest on nearly half of every dollar our government overspends! With their excessive overindulgences, is it any wonder we refer to those in DC as "Washington fat cats"???

Washington needs to be put on a diet. Perhaps starting with the vacations of Mr. and Mrs. Obama and family. I don't mind them having a little relaxation, but I really think it is time they tighten their belts a bit, like pert near everyone else in the nation is having to do. I mean, I know it isn't their money they are spending, so perhaps they don't care how much it costs to flit back-n-forth across the country or around the world, but they need to start caring. 'Cause they for dang sure aren't paying their fair share, not if we are picking up millions of dollars for their holiday tabs. I say, if they can't take just one, vacations that is, maybe they need to foot the bills for their junkets from now on.

© Suzann C. Darnall, FEBRUARY 2013