We have a problem. We are addicted to spending.

I’m not talking about your family budget, although 64% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck.

No, I’m talking about our elected officials and the $31.4 trillion debt they have accumulated. The number is so mind-numbing, so incomprehensible, one must ask “how the hell did that happen?”

Well, it just slipped up on us, bit by bit. We kept electing sweet-talking, career-building big spenders to political office. We were seduced. Democrat or Republican, even if they meant well going in, it was just a matter of weeks before they were swallowed up by the swampers and lobbyists. They quickly learned to play by the club rules to get re-elected, and getting re-elected is the key to stratospheric income potential. They got high on spending, so they did more. And more. And we were enablers.

Some politicians were wealthy before they were elected. And some of these are among the best representatives we have, because they didn’t go to DC to get rich. They don’t need to sell their souls to lobbyists for campaign funds. But too many candidates are elected by spending butt-loads of our money on campaigns, only to become stupid-rich a few years later by getting paid off to spend more butt-loads of our money.

Then there is the lack of transparency by our federal government and their propaganda division (news and social media). We never hear about their drunken spending on a detail basis. If we did, we would have a mass aneurism. Follow this link – it is enough to give you at least a headache.

But back to “how the hell . . .”

My small town received $3.8 million in American Rescue Plan “Covid” relief funds. Not one dollar was spent on Covid. Covid was just an excuse for federal officials to throw money at us to look like heroes and get re-elected. It’s not tax money – they just printed $1.9 trillion and our kids and grandkids will have to pay it back when the Chinese take over. Imagine how easy it is to pinch a little money off the top of each local grant? And I sure don’t get the “Rescue” part. If you were on a rooftop floating down a flooding river, would you want somebody to swoop in, take your money, spend it at the local brothel, and call it a rescue?

The feds said ARP funds could be used for whatever purpose local officials wanted, as long as it could be loosely categorized to one of the leftist priorities. So you folks in Alaska and Montana bought my town a new street sweeper, some city vehicles, some raises for city employees, and some new sewer lines, plus you paid off some past-due utility bills for our residents and businesses. And we here in South Carolina paid for new turf on a recreational football field in Ohio and a weird “public art display” in New Jersey. But don’t worry, it’s all “free” because it came from the feds, not our own local taxes. If we were asked to buy $200k of plastic “art” for a library in New Jersey, it wouldn’t go over well.

Meanwhile, spending addicts from both parties fall all over each other to funnel war money and equipment to Ukraine, depleting our own defense resources, but can’t find the money to harden our electrical grid, protect our internet, or seal our border from fentanyl traffic.

Ask any addict – step one toward recovery is recognizing that you have a problem. We have to convince our officials that we can’t keep supporting their spending habit.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Love those Palmer girls!