Because it’s not politically expedient for members of Congress to raise the debt ceiling before the elections, Bush will now delay payments to federal pensions in order to keep spending until the lame ducks get back in November and raise the limit.
WTF? Does no one see that this is really, really bad? We have debt coming out our ears, increased spending with no new taxes to support it, a war that is not making us safer and we have no idea how to get out of, and a world that looks at us like they looked at the Kaiser.
This shit is BAD. It’s not just business as usual, or making do during a rough patch. It’s some bad shit, all around, and it’s not going to get better if we keep doing what we’re doing.
Oh, and an aside I’ve been meaning to make to all those who bash “tax-and-spend liberals” (not here, specifically … just political talking heads I keep seeing on TV):
Taxes are how the government makes money. It’s the government’s paying job.
If the govt. does not take in taxes, it has no money to spend.
If I’m facing more expenses in my personal life, do I take care of them by
(a) working longer hours to bring in more money, while cutting as many expenses as I can
or
(b) going from full-time to part-time work, resulting in less money coming in, and then racking up even more expenses on my credit cards?
Robbing Peter to pay Paul. Spending money without the funds to back it up. Deficit spending. Kiting checks. Putting the country in hock. Spending your childrens’ futures. Take your pick.
It has happened before, and not just under a Bush. If Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, top-level Washington, DC, bureaucrats start shift funds among several accounts to keep the government functioning. One way to do that is take federal employee pension funds and use them to pay for government expenses until Congress gets around to raising the ceiling. In the past when this occurred, after the debt ceiling is raised the pension funds are returned to their own accounts, but no interest is paid for their use. Any earnings the pension funds would have received are not lost either.
There are worse things the federal government does with its money, but debt ceiling money transfers is not one of them.
What a lovely sentence! Now I know that debt ceiling money transfers are not worse than themselves. That’s a relief because I had begun to wonder who shaves the Barber of Seville.
Mind you, I did not say I agree with debt ceiling money transfers. I fid it offensive that politicians play such games with our money. But debt ceiling money transfers pale in comparison to other games going on, partisan and otherwise.