This is a headline from the Washington Post this morning:
Grim budget realities will limit Obama’s ambitions in second term
Grim budget realities will limit Obama’s ambitions in second term
Peter Wallsten and Zachary A. Goldfarb
Even if he wins the fight over tax rates for the wealthy in the “fiscal cliff,” new programs will be limited.
I say good! It is easy to say what I said or read it and assume it is a selfish thought. That my joy is based on limiting his actions that I do not agree with. However, that is not why I am hopeful. I am hopeful and pleased because it shows that there is a slim sliver of hope that we will face reality, and that we may start to try to live within our means, and that we will suck it in to survive.
My life time, over fifty years, may seem like a long time to most. However, in relation to the life of this nation it is small. I have lived for less than 25% of this nations life. However, during my lifetime it has been all good and plentiful. Even in these difficult times when families are tightening their belts we see full shelves, full gas tanks, car lots full of vehicles, and entertainment of all sorts doing well. Even my parents can talk of the days of little, and of rationing, and when my grandparents could talk it wasn't rationing because there was nothing to ration some weeks. My aunts were telling of the days during WWII when they had little. A family farm consisting of three generations (grandpa, two single aunts, two brothers and their families (four children and six children); they were farrow to finish hogs; dairy; beef production; breeding poultry with a hatchery for ducks, geese, turkeys and chickens; with meat production from all and eggs from chickens; and they were a full grain farm as well. This is a farm that in the 1940's owned and operated two threshing machines with first steam engines and then Rumley Oil Pulls, and the first farm semis in the area (they owned two tractors and full trailer selection for each). During WWII and shortly after this family struggled to put food on the table, because even a farm like this needed to budget, trade and barter for enough ration stamps for their own needs.
When is the last time that our nation lived this way? I know, because I have lived with those that lived that way.
It is time that someone reign in government, and that we as citizens were reigned in. We can't live like drunken sailors on leave for decades on end. There are good times, there are bad times, and we need to live with in our means during both. It is this story, and other news of the last two weeks that have me saying - Even the side fighting Pres. BHO is not being strict enough. Let us fall off the cliff and scramble to build. That is harsh, and it will hurt a lot, but it is far better than the false hope that we can tax and spend our way out of this, and that we need to just keep giving Pres. BHO new credit cards every time one maxes out (without any checks and balances according to his latest demand).