The U.S. Congress Spends Like Tomorrow is Just Another Day

Spend like tomorrow is just another day. 

Our nation faces gigantic debt and unbalanced budgets for decades to come. 

Let us consider that over-spending. Do you imagine Congress might ever, ever, spend less than what comes in? What are you smoking? You must also imagine that all student drinking is legal.

Congress and students behave the way they do for the same reason: They can. I will come back to that thought.

Congress behaves as did a couple who asked me to play Dutch Uncle for them. (I was their financial advisor.) They were spendthrifts. They had declared bankruptcy twice. They were about to declare again.

Their last bankruptcy judge absolutely prohibited them from using credit cards. But they were now using credit cards — under the name of the man’s brother, behaving like students with fake IDs. They were addicted to spending. Like the people we elect to Congress.

I asked whether their income had gone up over the years. Yes, it had. Many times. But every time they got raises, they upped their spending. It was as if they had a simple budget process. They calculated what their income would be. They then laid out plans to spend more than their income.

This sounds like our dear Congress, doesn’t it? Let us make that stronger. This is our Congress.

Congress recently got a raise, so to speak. Revenues streaming into Washington, D.C. rose 3.4 percent. That should spark a celebration.

Hey, we voted in a tax cut. Like most tax cuts, it revved up the economy. The revved-up economy generated more revenue. Even in the short-term, it did. Even so-called “evil” corporations paid 5 percent more than last year. In 11 months Washington took in $102 billion more than it did the previous 11 months. Remarkable. Let us break out the bubbly.

Congress did. And the bubbly went to their heads. Congresspeople increased spending by 6.4 percent. Yes, they saw $102 billion more come in. They spent all that $102 billion, plus another $169 billion. This is like the bankrupt couple celebrating their $10,000 raise by booking a $25,000 vacation. (Note: I drew the Washington figures from John Merline’s article in Issues & Insights, a terrific online editorial page.)

To be fair, much of the spending increase came from our big entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. But Congress is also too cowardly to rein in or reform such programs.

And to be further fair, they ramped up their defense spending by 7.9 percent. And they juiced up all their other spending by 4.5 percent.

The truth is that Congress is a spendthrift. No different than the bankrupt couple I advised.

Why won’t our politicians curtail spending? Why do they celebrate pay raises by blowing the raises and a hell of a lot more?

Simple. They overspend because they can. No one holds them to account. And, they can always squeeze more out of us. With a few new taxes.

This is so easy for them to do. Are you going to notice if they raise the tax on gasoline by five cents? Nah.

But Tom, the deficit is massive. And the debt they have piled up is mountainous. Where could Congress possibly find such immense amounts? Surely these figures must give politicians nightmares?

Right. Politicians never suffer nightmares. They experience pleasant dreams. Such as a tax on internet traffic. Such as carbon taxes. Those two alone would swamp Washington with new revenue.

Why there would be so much new money coming into Washington the politicians could hardly find ways to spend it all.

On the other hand, that really is a dream. As well as a nightmare.

From Tom…as in Morgan.                 

Tom Morgan writes about political, financial, and other subjects from his home in upstate New York. You can write to Tom at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com, read more of his writing at tomasinmorgan.com, or find him on Facebook.