DEBT CEILING AND A SEWER BACKUP, ONE IN THE SAME!

DEBT CEILING AND A SEWER BACKUP, ONE IN THE SAME!

(Washington Post/Lisa’s Used Cars/Frazer Chronicle)

A year ago and more the debt ceiling was at $14.3 trillion dollars here in the U.S., a figure that few Americans can comprehend, but it has to do with deficit spending, borrowed money, interest, and how the hell we as a nation will ever pay it back.

I do not pretend to be an economist, a book-keeper or one of those forensic accountants, of course maybe they are pretending, because absolutely nothing is getting done to fix the problem and later this year we are going to need another couple billion to keep things rolling in our government.

Deficit spending is nothing new, it's been around since 1917.....money needed to be borrowed for.....come on, take a guess.....ah, you know the answer.....it’s coming, and it’s on the tip of your tongue.....here it comes.....WAR.

The United States didn't have enough money to make war against Germany and her axis powers, so in 1917 the United States Congress approved borrowing, giving the country "flexibility" in the war effort. However the government did set a limit, called the established limit, "can't go over that established limit."

My point here is that a debt limit has been around American government for 97 years, it's not new; the debt ceiling has been raised on numerous occasions, for hundreds of reasons. The difference today is that the debt ceiling issue is being used like a basketball, bouncing back and forth between Democrats and Republicans.

The real problem is that the question of "when will the money be paid back" never is answered, and the country just keeps paying the interest, which by now is as big as some small countries annual operating budgets.

WHO IS OWED THE MONEY, AND HOW MUCH DO WE OWE?

Pension funds, mutual funds, American investors, hedge funds, foreign investors and foreign governments for the most part "own" American debt. China and Japan own upwards of a trillion dollars each in American debt.

Neither Japan nor China are worried about U.S. opinions with regards to how the two countries run their governments, or how oppressive they might "seem" to their people(s), we owe them too much. Of course another way to look at the situation is that the United States won't have to worry about going to war with either country as long as they stand to lose billions of dollars.

I owe about $45,000 dollars for my portion of the debt and my wife owes the same. But my daughter, with a husband and two kids owes in excess of $180,000, and they’re worse off than my wife and I, they have longer to live and pay on the debt, I guess there is some justice after all in the world.

No wonder American citizens are supposed to "pro-create" the government needs those extra wallets to help pay down the debt. I wonder if all of those people clamoring to become citizens of the United States from Mexico and South America know about the instant debt that they will inherit when they take the oath of citizenship.

The problems that we have, the debt that has been laid at our feet, and, of course, at 68 I helped create some of that debt. It seems almost insurmountable, and it may well be.....only time will tell and it won't be in my lifetime.

I do know that austerity programs, those suggested by the Republicans absolutely won't work. I also know that the Democrats are part of the problem and not the solution, and we the people also share in the problem that is our debt.

SEWAGE IN MY KITCHEN!

Ah simple things for simple people as in the E-mail I got from my brother-in-law the other day, picture it:

A guy comes home, discovers his neighborhood has a sewer backup problem, he opens the back door and is hit in the head with a load of crap, "That's right; the ground floor of his house has been inundated with feces."

"How could that be?” you ask. Well the E-mail did come from New Mexico and maybe their sewer systems are different then here in the Midwest. But that's not important, "how to get the crap out of his kitchen," that's the real problem.

Now this guy, with the kitchen full of poo decides that there is a message here about the debt ceiling and his kitchen. I don't get it.....but it's his story, and I'm sure he ain't changin' it. Anyways, the guy figures Democrats don't understand the debt ceiling, (some) Republicans don't understand the debt ceiling and some Liberals don't understand the debt ceiling.

All the while remembering that his kitchen is full of crap from the floor to the ceiling, he stands there, just outside his kitchen door, up to his knees in crap pondering what he should do, and I guess trying to equate his problem with that of the debt ceiling in the United States.

All of a sudden the solution comes to him either raise the ceiling or pump out the crap, "Your choice is coming next November, don't miss the opportunity to do the right thing."

I'm not sure I get it, unless he has a really small kitchen, exactly where does the guy intend to "pump the crap." Raising the ceiling, even for the short term would seem to be out of the question, but pumping a crap load of crap outside doesn't seem to be very wise either.

Gee maybe the Democrats, Republicans, the Tea Party, the Liberals and whoever else should sit down.....together.....and hammer out a solution.....now that is a novel idea.