Filling Buckets

"What is going to be happening this year and in the next few years to come will be very painful for the government dependent, and very refreshing for the fiscally prudent."

I have been thinking quite a bit about this as of late. Part of my thinking is steeped in my training in finance and contracts. It has to do with the allocation of costs. Like, which "pots", "buckets", or "silos" to put costs in. Just fancy terms for basic accounting. Kind of like apples and oranges. Only these costs are very important jargon these days. They have to do with which costs should be federal, which are state, which are local, and which should be private.

What is going to be happening this year and in the next few years to come will be very painful for the government dependent, and very refreshing for the fiscally prudent. Unlike "pajama boy" who was at the "teat" of government from birth to death, we are (hopefully) going to be slowly returning to how this country should be run.

Should be run! Bird, who are you to tell us how this country should be run? Fine. Don't listen to me. Just look at our national debt which is about ready to crest $20T. And why is it that high? For one reason, we don't have our costs in the right pots. The pot which seems to get filled the highest and the fastest is the federal pot. So when it starts to overflow, we just get a bigger pot. And then a bigger pot after that. Pretty soon, the pot gets so large, we have a $20T (and growing) national debt.

The current Administration, under the leadership of President Trump and Speaker Ryan, are going to try and get that federal bucket to be more "right sized". In other words, get the federal government to pay for only the things which they should pay for. Like the defense of the states. Many, many of the other costs which are in the federal budget are either duplicative, wasteful (no longer needed), should be borne by the states, should be borne by local governments, or should be borne by the private market.

What needs to happen next is for the State of Minnesota to follow suit. First off, the state needs to be aware there will some costs that were borne by the federal government which no longer will be. It will then be up to each state to put those costs in the right buckets they control (state, local, or private). Or, they can reduce those costs, or even consider them unnecessary and eliminate them.

A bit of forewarning. Be prepared to the howling, the gnashing of teeth, the screams, the profanity and so on. It took generations to get this thing so cocked up, and now we are going to try and fix it in a few short years. It is going to be hard, but necessary.

Some might ask, "What if we don't?" The answer to that question lies in the numbers. Soon the bucket for the federal government will be so big, it will weigh down the stock market and the entire economy. It could cause a crash which would make the last one look like child's play.

Plan a sustainable budget, and then live to that budget. Then make sure the costs are in the right buckets. It really is as simple as that.