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Carnes: High crimes and nursery rhymes as shutdown rolls on (column)

Richard Carnes
My View

Humpty Trumpty sat on a wall
Claiming it should be bigger,
Because of his mouth
The funding went south,
Leaving all in fear of his hair trigger.

Chuck and Nancy sat atop “The Hill”
Holding the nation’s purse strings,
They’re both falling down
And looking like clowns
Holding paychecks like they’re both kings.

Take your pick, both are valid statements. Each side is responsible for the pain being perpetrated upon millions of Americans.

Tomorrow, Donald Trump will tell everyone he didn’t say the things he said today about not saying the things he said yesterday and then insult the media for showing him saying those exact things.

If a liar lies about a lie, is the lie then a truth?

Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi will continue to absolve each other of blame by constantly introducing the media to an American losing their home, a poor family being hungry because they cannot receive food stamps and, sooner or later, a child becoming sick due to tainted food that wasn’t inspected by the shut-down FDA.

But we have a much larger problem to deal with as a nation, and the long-term repercussions will be felt far longer than this temporary shutdown.

Our national debt has been out of control since the 80s, and except for the time immediately after World War II, had never been more than our Gross Domestic Product (total annual value of all US goods and services), until 2014.

And now it is the norm.

Yes, we owe more than we annually produce, and with rising interest rates and a $1 trillion dollar annual deficit (expenses over income), it is only getting worse.

Imagine the overdraft fees.

But before you start yelling about it all being Trump’s fault or Obama’s before him, realize contrary to popular ignorance, American presidents do not control spending, as Congress is in charge of the national checkbook.

Congress proposes a spending bill, the Senate approves, and the president signs — or not — but it all starts with Congress.

The Republican-controlled Congress since 2010 approved spending over $8 trillion (that’s with a “T”) more than we produced, and projections already anticipate the new Democrat-controlled Congress to keep the trend going, especially with the debt-funded tax cut kicking into high gear in 2019 and hefty increases in military spending.

All of this childish back and forth over who said what when about a vanity wall pales in importance when compared to the reality of our children’s children being saddled with an unpayable yet unavoidable national debt approved by Congress.

Little boy Trump sat on his rump
Eating his burger and fries,
Along came a Dem who said, “It’s us or them”
And all of America cries.

Richard Carnes, of Edwards, writes weekly. He can be reached at poor@vail.net.


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