Government is addicted to spending

Have you ever known a drug addict? It’s a sad thing to see. Somebody who always needs more of whatever they’re addicted to while, at the same time, losing touch with reality the longer time goes on. Try taking it away and you get the begging, pleading and finally the threats. The only chance is to try and deny them their fix and brace yourself for the awful ride as they deal with it.

Reminds me of my government. Government’s the addict that needs more and more money. And because we keep giving it to those in government, they have come to expect it. They take it, spend it until it’s gone and then spin around to demand more, more, more. They “need” it, you see. They “need” it to pay for this, pay for that — always more.

Debt and deficit spending is the highest it has been in the history of our country. Foreign aid has also been increased to record levels. Stimulus money is handed out like Halloween candy to failing companies as a way of saying, “Thanks for contributing to my campaign.” Trillions of dollars are forked over to help intolerant hate-monger Group A fight intolerant hate-monger Group B in the Middle East. And through it all, the United States endures stagnant unemployment and ever-increasing applications for public assistance (welfare).

The country is in dire straits and darker days are ahead as our money problems reach critical mass, and our leaders just keep blowing money anyway. Woe be it to the person who dares to stand up and say, “No more!” Just look at how quickly they are pounced upon; “if you don’t agree to give us more money, we won’t be able to pay our bills!” Um, news flash, we aren’t paying our bills now and haven’t been for quite some time. It’s like saying, “I’m $10,000 in debt with the interest increasing every day, all my outstanding bills say IOU on them and, gosh golly gee, if you don’t loan me another few thousand dollars to put me in even deeper in debt, then I won’t be able to make my car payment.” The degree of insanity is staggering.

I say do it. Cut them off. Let the federal government come to a halt. Oh, and by the way, the “federal government shut down” does not, contrary to the threats being made, stop all payments from going out. The military still gets paid unless the president says otherwise. Look it up. Take away all their money, let them go wild. Let them get angry and begin to try and “teach us a lesson.” I can already see it: “Golly taxpayers, if only you had allowed us to go even deeper in debt, then you’d still be able to go the Post Office today.”

Sooner or later, these so-called “representatives of the people” need to either start doing the job they were elected to do or be replaced (frankly, I’d prefer the latter.)

But see, this is where we fail. This is where you and I drop the ball. To be blunt, we’ve become a nation of spoiled brats. Sure, we all gripe and moan about the state of the economy, but just try talking about making cuts. “Oh no, you’re not touching my Medicare! Oh no, you’re not touching my welfare payments! Oh no, you’re not touching my college loans!” We all want to see spending reined in, but not at the expense of anything that may alter our way of life.

Look at last week when the vote was taken to reduce spending on food stamps. Oh the handwringing, shouting and moaning. “They don’t care! They’re going to starve widows and orphans!” Really? Have you stood in line at the grocery store behind somebody using these benefits lately? I can distinctly recall stopping at the store on my way home from work on a payday to pick up whatever I could afford. The person in front of me, a young woman with three children running around, had three carts. I watched frozen pizzas, frozen lasagnas, pork rinds and other assorted chips, candy, soda, etc., go through and stared in disbelief as I paid for it. Oh, and you, too — all courtesy of food stamps.

Are you going to tell me all that was “necessary to survive?” There is no room to reform this spending? Apparently, many people think so. As for me, call me crazy, but I find it odd that you can be on public assistance and be grossly overweight, carry a Coach purse, have professionally manicured nails and talk on your latest-generation iPhone. Food stamps are just one example.

We want cuts, we just don’t want them to hurt. Well, here’s news flash No. 2: you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Until the day comes that the U.S. public faces the unpleasant truth that in order to get our house back in order, everybody is going to have to sacrifice, our economic troubles are only going to get worse. Oh sure, a good place to start would be the ridiculous amount of money our government wastes. But when you’re talking several trillions of dollars, that’s not going to make the difference all by itself.

And so on we go, complaining about the way our spendaholic government treats the money we give them while at the same time refusing to consider any serious reduction. I’m curious and nervous to see where this is going to take us.

Ben Compton is a Palmer resident and publishes his column as “Compton’s Corner,” the same title used by his grandmother, Phyllis Compton, a longtime Frontiersman columnist.