Spending

            Democrats and Republicans on both sides of the aisle agree that the ballooning national debt is unsustainable, and that adding to it is     unconscionable. But instead of cutting spending, they pass a two-year spending bill that will add trillions to that debt. 

           

            I have three favorite quotes that I keep nearby and reread when I get frustrated with our dysfunctional legislators in Washington:

·         Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. __P. J. O’Rourke

·         A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have. ­­__Thomas Jefferson

·         The government is like a baby’s alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. __Ronald Reagan

People who are serious about balancing the budget and are open to radical ideas should read the cover story in the February 12 issue of The Weekly Standard. Entitled “The Case for Free Money,” the article by Tony Mecia discusses the various plans that have been offered under the general heading of a universal basic income. Among those who have taken a crack at this idea are such luminaries as Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, Charles Murray, John Kenneth Galbraith, and Martin Luther King. I thought the idea was nonsense—until I read the article.