The following was written by my friend Ed Pliml, but I liked it so I’m reprinting it here. –DE
When Congress votes on a proposed budget, they are deciding on what and how much to spend money on. The debt ceiling is paying the bill for what they already spent. They can fight over the budget every year until their dysfunctional debutant ignorant politician ears bleed. But once you place your order & get your food, you don’t dine & dash. And if you do (or even threaten to), you can’t expect to be served the next time.
We’re in a ton of debt. You can argue that we shouldn’t use any more credit. That we’re digging ourselves into a hole we’ll never get out of. Others say, “Okay, but we have no cash & we need food & I have to put gas in the car to get to work to get paid. So let’s be practical.”. To which the first group says, “We tried. We can’t. Every time we walk into the grocery store we end up coming out with $20 worth of crap they sell at the end of the register while you’re in line.”. To which they other group says, “Yes, I get it. We suck at this. But if we don’t put gas in the car, we’ll lose our job & won’t have ANY money.”. And back and forth… FINE. There’s a very reasonable discussion to be had and often (reasonable even for politicians). But you DON”T agree to max out the card & then decide not to pay the bill. You decide how much to spend BEFORE you spend it. … These are BUDGET discussions. Not “Should we pay our bill?” discussions. That shouldn’t ever be up for discussion.
WE WERE DOWNGRADED OVER THIS LAST YEAR. That means we pay a higher interest rate now. Just discussing this has cost us millions. Why? Because banks don’t trust you as much when you publicly discuss whether or not you’re gonna make your payments on what you borrowed from them…on the news…for months. They’re touchy that way.
For the record, although on this particular issue it’s the Republican politicians costing America billions for petty political points, Democrats have done the same in many different and petty/vain ways. So remember, whether you support Dems or the GOP, you support a party of contemptible treasonous lying cowardly sociopaths.
– Positive Reflections by Ed Pliml
Word!
Dean Esmay is the author of Methuselah’s Daughter. He has contributed to Dean’s World, Huffington Post, A Voice for Men, Pajamas Media. Neither left nor right wing, neither libertarian nor socialist.