“When I was growing up and as I raised my own children, we had a budget.  Every week there were expenses to consider and plan.  Our long-term goals as a family, like vacations, were the product of careful, consistent savings to make sure we could have a trip each year to inspire our autumn “how I spent my summer vacation” essays for school. 

In Washington, the word budget seems to have a completely different meaning.  The rules our households observe (money in must equal or exceed money out) do not seem to apply to the bureaucrats who populate the halls of government agencies.  Furthermore, the federal budget projects taxpayer receipts years in advance and guesses at policy changes that may or may not come to pass.  The result is a murky picture, at best, of our nation’s future financial obligations.

In the meantime, the national debt gathers mass like a snowball rolling down Everest.  Right now, the figure stands at a staggering $8.8 Trillion.  The average share of every American is $29,371.  Every day, the U.S. national debt increases about $1.9 Billion.  Because it is an unimaginable amount of money, understanding the obligation of our national debt is difficult.

Our national debt belongs to everyone, but Americans act as though it belongs to no one.

Guarding against a growing national debt means taking credit for cutting waste, fraud and abuse and fixing duplicated and outdated programs.  It also requires Congress to cut spending for reasons other than simply making room for more.

At the same time, we must apply cost-effective solutions to pressing national problems, like fixing our systems of military and veterans health care.  We must find reforms in our entitlement programs that don’t hurt beneficiaries, but keep Medicare and Social Security solvent for every American who pays into these programs.  We must be our own critics in Congress when we plan
a budget for the country.

Three budgets were offered in the U.S. House of Representatives last week.  I voted against all of them.  Not one budget proposal reflects the ownership we must take over the national debt and our federal spending.  Not one responsibly forecasts our country’s projected revenues and outlays – that’s taxes and spending to you and me.

One proposal opens the gates of the treasury to relieve global warming.  Another would require significant cuts to agriculture, Medicare and Social Security, without really describing how to find these “savings.”

Finally, the proposal which passed contained some savings: $485 million worth – mostly from the sale of Department of Defense commodities, like metals, to the private sector.  Next to the deficit in this particular budget, $213 Billion next year alone, $485 million is literally pennies on the dollar.

Every family in Southern Missouri, including mine, has to balance a checkbook.  We have to prioritize the things we need to buy and sacrifice some of the things we want to buy.  The federal government should be no different with the pursestrings of the taxes to which every family is beholden.  The federal budget is not your family budget, that’s for sure, but it is your money.”