The Change We Voted For?!

I just read today the the Administration states that unemployment will remain around 9% until about 2012. The deficit this year will be 1.47 trillion dollars.

Well, that MUST be the CHANGE we all voted for don't you think? After all, we wanted things to get bigger right? Or was that supposed to be better? I guess bigger isn't always better.

I know a lot of folks want to blame Bush and his folks for this mess, but we've had 18 months of "change" and I don't really like it.

I don't like it because the "change" I see and hear is the "ka ching" of the change machine as the new Administration hands out money we don't have. You hear about it everywhere. Congress passes another bill that sends $$ out the door for this program or that buyout. Dollars that don't exist! If the dollars don't exist, then we have to be borrowing the money - which is evident by increasing deficits and national debt!

They're forecasting that we'll continue to take in less taxes than we will spend for the near future.

OK let's do the math.

I have $100, but just in order to live it costs me $150. Where do I get the $50? A nice bank loans me the $50. Now I can live, but I owe the bank $50, plus interest (they're really not as nice as I thought).

My income stays the same but my expenses increase by a mere 2%! Now it costs me $153 to live. I still can't make it because my income hasn't changed. I borrow a second time from the not so nice bank and now I owe $103 plus interest.

It's not hard to see that it won't take me long to be in such debt that I'll never get out of it. UNLESS I complete one of the two basic rules of budgeting - 1. spend less or 2. earn more! There really are no other options here.

Borrowing until I die only leaves my heirs with the mess. Did I forget to mention that the not-so-nice bank still wants it's money with interest, after I'm gone? Well they do, and my kids are now trying to figure out how to pay the bank because when they sold all my assets, there wasn't enough to pay the bank.

So I've compounded the problem for my family by using money I didn't have. It's really no different for our country. It's as basic as it gets - 1. spend less or 2. earn more. If our country "earns more." It means more taxes. We're all ready to give more to our "wise" leaders aren't we? Well I'm not, so I'd rather spend less.

We have dug such a deep hole that if we don't stop the bleeding of money via borrowing, we WON'T be able to recover. It will bring disasters that we can't even imagine. We may think these last few years have been bad, but if we can't pay for what we need to live (as a country) then that not so nice bank in my example will come in and take over our great nation. Oh did I forget to mention that the bank is a foreign nation (or two?). If we think that fighting wars with weapons that kill is tough - wait until someone other than our law makers are running this place and telling us what to do.

So how's that change workin out for ya?