Most people who’ve had to straighten out their finances can tell you that the good times look like they’ll go on forever as you run up first one credit card, then another until suddenly you can’t get another new one and the bills are due. You’re paying $50 here and $50 there until your entire check is used up making $50 minimum credit card payments that will go on forever. Same with bond issues and taxes. It’s just a little here and a little there until pretty soon, we’re talking about real money. And, if you lose you job or your hours are cut back, well then you’re in a world of hurt because your check isn’t big enough to make all of those payments. Same with government. When citizens are thrown out of work, they stop paying taxes and start collecting unemployment, or as my grandfather used to say, “They become a burden on the taxpayers.” Then government suddenly can’t make all of its payments and starts raising taxes which only makes the situation worse.

Government officials who love to spend want you to see this a s a series of little payments without totaling up the big picture. It’s easier for them to sell you their spending plan if its broken up in little chunks that look reasonable. It’s for the kids, or it’ll reduce crime. This is all bogus as our spending per pupil is some of the highest in the country and our crime is some of the lowest. The education spending is all going to support the teachers’ unions and the school board bureaucracy at the central office. All of this government borrowing and spending crowds out private capital that isn’t being invested in new businesses and new jobs, so when you lose your job, there’s nowhere else to get a new one. But hey, it’s only a little bit of your check. You’ve got enough to keep making all of those minimum payments – for now. And that rumor about layoffs at the plant, I’m sure it’s nothing but the usual scuttlebutt. Nothing to see here. Move along.