Hopefully you all had a wonderful holiday season filled with many of the traditions you and your family enjoy. One new holiday tradition that I can do without however, is the threat of a government shutdown that seems to come back every December as Washington struggles to pass an annual budget before the last minute.
I would like to believe that with a new year, and a new President, things will be different in the future, but that seems highly unlikely. The truth is Washington likes these manufactured crises. If these types of urgent deadlines didn’t exist, people might have time to really examine what is in the spending bills prior to them being signed into law.
What’s unfortunate about our whole system is that while we might complain about government spending, we generally expect those who represent us to divert as many federal dollars back to our community as possible. Politicians know they will likely be fired if they don’t bring the pork back home, but usually will not be punished too harshly if they also send a bunch of it to other places too.
What this results in, is a gentleman’s agreement amongst politicians where they each support one another’s pet projects. It’s symbiotic for them, while at the same time being parasitic for us.
Often these wasteful items are stuffed into a large spending package like the one proposed in late December to keep the government from shutting down. They then attach things everyone supports like disaster relief, in order to paint anyone opposed to the spending package as lacking in compassion.
Before any of you start putting the blame on whatever political party opposes your own, let me just say no party has the monopoly on wasting our money. What they spend the money on may sometimes be different, but parsimoniousness is a virtue nobody in Washington seems to have.
I would guess many families struggling financially treat their own budgets much like Washington. One spouse agrees to purchases the other one wants, in exchange for getting approval on the things they want to buy as well. Before long, the credit card is maxed out and worthwhile spending like utilities or food is used as justification for opening a new one. This cycle continues until banks are no longer willing to issue more credit, and then the whole house of cards falls to the ground. Who gets harmed the most in such a scenario? The innocent kids.
Similarly, if our leaders continue to be fiscally irresponsible the economy will ultimately collapse. When that does happen, it will not be the decision makers that are punished most. It will be us.
(Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The advice is general in nature and not intended for specific situations)