Fiscal (In)Sanity

"The trick is to stop thinking of it as 'your' money."

         - Anonymous IRS auditor

I learned financial responsibility from my parents.  While I haven't avoided frivolous debt all of my life, I have generally managed to spend less than I make, save some funds for a rainy day and enjoy a somewhat financially secure retirement. 

Given my feelings about handling my own finances, I've always had an interest in how my political representatives utilize the money we've entrusted to them.  I pretty much expect them to handle spending for us as they would handle it for themselves---taking care of necessities and being frugal with discretionary outlays.  

Lately, our President, and his Democratic and Republican associates in Congress, have gone on a spending spree unlike any I can remember.  This disturbs me a lot, for they are incurring debt that will have to be shouldered by our children for generations to come.

While I wholeheartedly support President Bush in our war on terrorism and his position on tax cuts, I am having some real misgivings about his seeming disregard for how many taxpayer dollars are being spent on his watch.

Andrew Sullivan, a blogger I enjoy visiting, has just penned this post in which he outlines his concerns about this issue in a much more eloquent manner than I ever could.  I quote some of his post below:

"But in three short years, this president has so ramped up government spending that he has turned a fiscal surplus into a huge and mounting debt...If you take defense and entitlement spending out of the picture...Bush has upped domestic spending by a whopping 21 percent..." 

You should read the whole thing.  And while you're thinking about it, if you agree with Mr. Sullivan and me, fire off a letter to your Congressmen.  They need to hear from us about this.  Don't know how to do that?  Here's a site that will help.