The Money Pit

Today I am shedding some "lyte" on fiscal responsibility. The White House Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office confirmed today what we all suspected, unemployment is worse than we thought, and we are going into debt, as a nation, much faster than predicted.

Expect a lot of hue and cry from the Republicans and rabid right on this. They have recently, as of January 2009, rediscovered fiscal restraint after decades of out of control spending. When they start to paint Obama with the "selling out our children's' future" tar brush, just remember that this is the group that helped turn a budget surplus into a deficit overnight. That conducted two wars off the books to make their debt seem smaller. That pushed through an increase to Medicare that they conveniently had no way of paying for.

They also help to oversee one if the largest transfers of wealth from the middle class to the upper class in our history. And created a pitiful amount of jobs during Bush's tenure. They aided and abetted companies that shipped millions of jobs overseas. They created a culture of consumption that encouraged and rewarded short term gain over sustainability.

But now they care. Now they are demanding what was in such short supply for the past eight years: accountability and restraint. Excuse me for seeming a bit incredulous, they spent the last eight years with the fiscal policy of if there's checks in the checkbook, then there's money in the bank, and now they demand that we cut spending. I have a suggestion, let's start with their salaries, their staffs, and their budgets. If the stimulus is so horrible, let's take the money out of their districts and states and send it where it is welcome. If a public option to healthcare is so onerous, leave their constituents out.

Our government has to spend money right now because we can't. Our economy is predicated on consumer spending and consumers have nothing to spend. When you disseminate the middle class, there are consequences. When you gut manufacturing, there are consequences. When you fail your citizens, there are consequences. For all their Bible thumping, they forgot that you reap what you sow.