Archive: Opinions

What is worth closing a nation?  That's what I think has been on all of our minds over the past two weeks.  And while I am happy that our alleged leaders got the government reopened yesterday, I am wondering what's going to happen when they run out of stop-gap measures, and why it was worth shutting things down, which impacts a lot of real people in significant ways.

To me it boils down to simple things that we all, including our representatives in Washington, know.  Going into irretrievable debt is bad.  Not buying things you can't afford is good.  When you go into debt be forthright with your creditors and come up with an action plan to get out from under.  Those things are right up there with wipe your feet before entering a house, and be polite to your mother.  That book about learning everything needed for life in Kindergarten should be required reading in Washington.

It's not as if our representatives didn't know we were in debt, or what things cost.  When you owe trillions of dollars it should be keeping you up at night.  It's bad enough to rack up thousands you can't afford ion your credit card bill.  A thousand looks like this: 1,000.  A trillion looks like this: $1,000,000,000,000.  And at this writing we owe $16.75 of them.  Don't those twelve zeros worry our congressmen and senators?  They worry me.

According to the U.S. National Debt Clock, as of this writing I personally owe $52,863.55 of that.  And so do you.

Really???!!!

One trillion US $1 bills would make a pile that is 67,866 miles high.  The International Space Station's altitude varies from between 199 miles and 215 miles high.  Even at it's highest altitude the money's height is 31,565.58% of the space station's.  I have trouble even picturing this.  And when you multiply it by the number of trillions we owe, that stack of bills goes to 1,136,755.5 miles high.  For heaven's sakes, the moon is only about 240,000 miles high.  That stack of money is 4.7 times higher than the moon!

Remember when Ralph Cramden would get mad at his wife and say, "To the moon, Alice!" on "The Honeymooners"?  Today that wouldn't be nearly far enough.

I like to spend within my means and stay out of debt.  I thought I had done a pretty good job of that.  I didn't tell anyone to spend all that money, but evidently that's what I owe the nation's creditors.  Yike!  53 thousand is a huge lot of money in my world.

Going back to my point: this isn't something that our congressmen and senators didn't know about.  It isn't a surprise.  They could have earnestly worked on a long term solution years ago if they were serious and responsible representatives.  Didn't they actually do that during the Clinton years?  So we know they can.

I can only conclude that they don't want to.  Evidently partisan bickering is more fun for them than reducing my undeserved $53,000 debt.  Do I feel represented?  Not so much.

For all we pay these guys and the benefits we give them (for life) you would think they might extend us the courtesy of being a little responsible.  Part of that is being pro-active.  Solve problems before they occur.  The fact that our government closed for two weeks should be inconceivable.  But it isn't because they did it.  Now it's time to get serious and solve this debt problem once and for all.

Well, that's what I think.  I have low hopes that anybody in Washington thinks it.

To the moon, Congress!

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