When the Huns swept in and sacked Rome, they didn't stick around for a sightseeing tour. Everything of value was stolen before they beat a hasty retreat, leaving behind financial ruin... amongst plenty of other damages, for the Romans to repair.
In just 2 weeks, a new congress will be sworn into office; dozens of its members are retiring, a similar number were defeated during the recent election and will not be returning to office. But that didn't stop the "lame duck" assembly from making like Huns and sacking America.
Democrat and republican politicians, much like a horde of invading berserkers with, one would hope, slightly better hygiene, just got finished enacting an "Omnibus Spending Bill," which adds yet another $1.7 trillion dollars to the national debt... which is to say, to the debt of taxpayers. The bill is chock full of "pork," which is to say, spending projects designed to provide legacy status to outgoing members of congress.
During the past 2 years, the same group of politicians passed all sorts of other spending bills, too, from covid relief to the deficit reduction act, neither of which, by the way, did much, if anything, to alleviate the effects of covid or inflation. They spent almost 10 trillion of your tax dollars in all, which only added to the country's financial woes because that debt isn't being paid-off, it's being financed... at ever-increasing interest rates. Very few Americans have a degree in economics, but almost everyone understands what happens when you constantly spend far more than you earn... it's called bankruptcy.
"But the spending was necessary; printing all that extra money saved us from a national catastrophe." That's what profligate spending politicians are saying; congressional spending kept the country from financial ruin. "We saved Americans from covid, funded infrastructure, paid off college debt, solved inflation, and provided for statues celebrating donors and the members of congress they funded," politicians are proclaiming... well, they don't mention the statues. But, of course, they're politicians, they're neither honest nor objective.
The questions I'd pose to honest objective Americans are these: If that's true, pray tell... are you better off now than before all that money was spent? Has your life improved since politicians saddled you with an additional 10 trillion dollars of debt? Did you benefit from covid relief? Has a single bridge been repaired; is airline travel easier, has that high-speed rail system been built? Has your college loan been reduced? Is inflation back to its pre-spending 1.5% levels?
The answers, of course, are uniformly "NO!" But the money has been spent and now, like the citizens of Rome after the Huns made their exit, we're left to pay for it. If there's a single positive take-away, anything we can look to for consolation or succor, it'll be that soon, funded by your tax dollars, a shiny new edifice will rise bearing the carved inscription, "The Nancy Pelosi Federal Office Building." Its funding can be found on one of the 4,500 pages of the Omnibus Spending Bill congress enacted...
Right before beating a hasty retreat and leaving Rome in ruins.
