Tuesday, June 22, 2010

No Budget This Year

There used to be a picture in my bathroom directly in front of the ‘throne’; a chance to ponder old sayings while taking care of important business. “Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life”, was on the first line as I recall followed by twenty or thirty classic one liners. The picture vanished some time back; one of my children has it in their bathroom across town.


Reading a story on the Foxnews website reminded me of that picture and the wisdom gleaned during deliberate and essential moments of thought.

“Those who spend five but make only four have no need of a purse”.

It would seem our leaders in Washington never bothered to learn that one.


“House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday his party will not approve a traditional budget that sets spending guidelines for the new fiscal year.”


Having watched the efforts in Washington this past year such a statement shouldn’t surprise anyone. I shouldn’t let previous administrations off the hook, heaven knows they did a fair job at spending money; but the current administration gets the brass ring when it comes to chucking restraint in the trash.


The dictionary used by the folks on Capitol Hill has pages torn out to make sure there would never be any reference to words such as Budget and Restraint. (To be sure, I think Clinton had the words Restraint and Sexual Predator yanked long before he ever considered working on the budget.) The congressional dictionary is getting mighty thin; reference to words such as constitution, representative, integrity, character, honesty and many others have also been deleted.


‘“Here’s another idea Democrats should consider,” chided Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). “Stop spending money you don’t have.”’


The scale in my bathroom lied to me just this past week and one of my daughters remarked that I appeared to be over weight when I went swimming on Father’s Day; cruel yet truer words have never been spoken. There are many tried and true diets to get rid of excess weight; none more efficient than when congress is in session. By the time those thieves get done with our money there won’t be enough left to buy groceries.


“I’ll gladly pay you Wednesday for a hamburger today”, wasn’t that the line from Popeye’s deadbeat friend? Did Wimpy ever pay anyone back; my guess is he eventually got elected and still has a seat in Washington.


I could go for an old favorite, the one from Treasure of the Sierra Madre. I’ve butchered that line many times as suited my needs; why should this subject be any different? “Budget, we don’t need no stinkin’ budget!”


This article has been cross posted to The Moral Liberal , a publication whose banner reads, “Defending The Judeo-Christian Ethic, Limited Government, & The American Constitution”.

2 comments:

MathewK said...

“Budget, we don’t need no stinkin’ budget!”

Yeah, that seems to be the motto with those a-holes, spending other peoples money and spending more than they can even steal.

T. F. Stern said...

MK, If they ever applied the constitution to pieces of legislation which spent taxpayer money they would have to throw most all of them in the trash.