Washington, D.C. spends like crazy and nobody cares

This country has a debt crisis. Yawn. Who the hell cares? Certainly not our Congress. It keeps juicing up what it spends — beyond the income that comes into the Washington, D.C. coffers.

Our Congressional reps remind me of a couple who came to me years ago for financial counseling. They had gone bankrupt twice. And were about to go down a third time.

They were spendthrifts who suffered many problems and shortcomings. A biggie was their psychological state. They enjoyed excellent income. And their income had risen every year. Money was not a problem. Their attitude toward it was the problem. When their income rose by 5 percent, they increased what they spent — by 7 or 8 percent. They could not resist spending more than they earned.

Congress suffers the same malady. More and more money arrives in Washington, and Congress spends all of the increase, and then some. It is the “and then some” that plunges us deeper in debt. When they spend more than they take in, they have to borrow more money to cover the difference. They sell more IOUs — otherwise known as Treasury bonds. Pile those bonds up to the sky. That is known as our national debt.

The last few years have seen revenues grow. Extra money has streamed into Washington, D.C. with economic growth boosted by the Trump tax cuts. Congress has spent it all, and then some.

We saw the same after the George W. Bush tax cuts increased revenue. We saw it after the Reagan tax cuts increased revenue. Congress found more ways to increase spending beyond the increased revenue.

We did see some discipline when Clinton reigned. When the Soviet empire collapsed, we could finally slash defense spending. Clinton was dealt a perfect hand: big increases in tax revenue from an expanding economy and less need to spend all those billions on defense.

Since then we have run deficits. Yawn. 

President Trump says he will tackle this in his fifth year. Right. Thus far, he has shown no backbone on spending and the deficit. Congress has passed bloated spending bills. In response, Trump has whined. But he has not stood up to the spendthrifts.

Politicians don’t care about the overspending. Because they will be long-gone when the manure hits the proverbial fan. And they don’t lose sleep over the country’s problems. As long as their district or state or favorite project wins more money, they are happy.

And what if this stupidity leads to a massive financial crisis down the road? Yawn. They know that politicians down the road can always raise taxes on the people down the road. Or they can engineer some inflation — inflated dollars to pay off non-inflated Treasuries? 

The politicians could solve this problem. They will not. My bankrupt friends could have avoided a third bankruptcy. They did not.

Congress could cut spending across the board tomorrow. They could declare that every government program would be cut by, say, 6 percent. Every program, no exceptions.

Further, they could slap a cap on future spending. They could declare that the national budget cannot go up more than inflation plus 2 percent for the next 10 years. At the end of a decade, we would have a severely reduced national debt.

Sure, a lot of folks and programs that get government checks would complain. Bureaucrats would whine that their budgets were shrinking. Foreign countries would moan that their aid from us was dwindling. State and local governments would proclaim the sky is falling because the squirts from government had declined.

But we would survive. One reason is that there is hardly a budget anywhere that cannot withstand a 6 percent cut.

Would Congress ever consider such a diet? Nah. No more than most of us will stick with our 2020 resolution to lose our bulges.

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.