"Is that any way to run a railroad (or a country)? Not unless you want to have a catastrophic train wreck somewhere down the tracks."
Here it is again. It is like a bad penny, it always seems to show up. It is one of the curses when we spend more money than we have. Is it a Democrat issue? I sure wish I could say that it is. But sadly, it lies at the feet of the Republicans just as surely as it lies at the feet of the Democrats. It is the debt ceiling. And we (our government) is already late in raising it.
This summer, we are headed for the perfect storm - or should I say a perfect train wreck. Our country, which is mortgaged to the hilt, would like to go shopping - starting today. What is on our wish list? First off, "the wall". That be the one the Mexicans were going to pay for. Now I guess we will pay for it, and try to recapture some money from Mexico at a later date. Good luck with that one.
We also are in desperate need of upgrades to our military. Not just to finish the build out of the F-35 and other expensive platforms, we have stuff in the field which no longer works. Why? It is due to a severe cut in maintenance dollars during the Obama Administration. Donald Trump would like an additional $53B to start the modernization of our military, but truthfully, until we can rid of wasteful practices in the Pentagon, that might not be enough.
President Trump has also held out the bright shiny toy for the Democrats to see. And they love it - probably the only thing they will ever agree with this President on. That would be the $1T in infrastructure spending. What is there not to love? We need it, don't we? Yes we do. But the icky question which keeps popping up is "Where is the money coming from?"
Finally, tax cuts. Get rid of some of these stubborn taxes which drag down the economy. Right now the Administration is betting that the Laffer Curve is more substance than theory. If not, we will have more spending with less money coming into the Treasury. What does that equal? More debt.
Oh yes, more debt. The debt ceiling. What the debt ceiling does is allow us to pay for stuff we racked up on our charge cards. The higher the debt ceiling, the more we can spend. I know, I know - we can't do that in our personal lives. We have to be responsible and prudent. But our government? Leave tomorrow's worries for tomorrow's citizens.
I like that! Live for today, spend like there is no tomorrow! Somewhere down the line, our kids and grand kids can clean up this mess. Is that any way to run a railroad (or a country)? Not unless you want to have a catastrophic train wreck somewhere down the tracks.
Nice blog. Not much difference between Dems and Pubs, just wherei we want the money we don't have spent. Where are the conservative, small government folks when they are needed. Missing in action, worried about re-election as usual.
ReplyDeleteEven if he survives, Trump’s leadership in Washington is in tatters. The Freedom Caucus doesn’t fear him. What’s left of the Republican moderates don’t respect him. The Democrats will have nothing to do with him. And his fair weather friend, Paul Ryan, is a disaster as speaker of the House who is fighting harder for tax cuts for the top one percent than for anything in the Trump campaign agenda and making enemies of the Breitbartians in the process. The Senate Intelligence Committee is showing signs of conducting a real investigation into Trumpgate, and there are fewer and fewer Devin Nunes’ professing a willingness to destroy themselves on Trump’s behalf. Republican partisans are openly advising the GOP-led Senate to cram through their Supreme Court nominee and then wash their hands of Donald J. Trump forever.
ReplyDeleteBarring some dramatic change—and we should seriously worry about what Trump and Bannon might cook up in that regard—this only goes in one direction, and that’s further downhill.