Yipee- we can fail some more!

Don't ya just feel great. Yipee, we now have 90 more days to drive us further into debt. I think the happiest guys around now are the salesmen that sell the green ink and paper for Jack Lew to continue printing more and more money.

Maybe I should start feeling selfish for my wife and I. We're 78-years young, and we won't be around when the s**t hits the fan. But I did get some good news this past Sunday at a family barbeque.

My 23-year old granddaughter used to constantly tease me about being a "news junkie", and always joked with me about spending too much time watching Fox. Her infamous remark to me was always, "I won't watch any news...heck I don't even vote, cause I don't want to be part of the problem".

So, while we're munching on burgers and watching our Browns lose 31-17 to Detroit my granddaughter and her fiancee started asking me questions. "hey gramps what about this government shut down"?, then later, " I heard this national debt is going to be $20Trillion by the time Obama leaves office....what does that mean, and who pays for that"?

Gotta tell ya; their questions were like an opening for more questions and opinions so much that most of us forgot about the Browns' losing game to Detroit.  So I decided to offer the best analogy I could to my granddaughter and her fiancee.

I said,  "Suppose you're making $50,000 a year, and have a credit card that's max'd out at $5,000.
Then the bank says 'don't worry...we'll just raise your limit to $10,000.  Soon, you hit that $10,000 credit card limit, and the bank keeps raising your limit. And all this time you're still making only around $50,000 a year.  By this time you guys are married and have a couple of kids. Then your husband's company decides to move their production to China where labor is cheaper. Soon you realize your monthly income is much lower then your monthly bills, and while this is going on your wonderful bank keeps telling you 'don't worry...we'll just raise your debt ceiling'. 

Then I hit them with my grand finale, "Now imagine our country like your household, except our country does two things; we keep borrowing from China, and we also just print our own money. However, you gotta pay the piper, so someone is going to be on the hook for our huge debt.  We must get companies to invest and create more jobs for Americans. If not, then our government will keep raising taxes and kick the can down the road".

My granddaughter asked, "What does that mean to us"?  I tried to put it as simply as I could, so I just answered, "Prices and the cost of living will get so bad that you will have to continue borrowing to make ends meet, and our government will do the same....to the point that someday, at the grocery story you'll pay $30.00 for a loaf of bread; $2.00 for the bread, and $28.00 for taxes".

I gave a few more analogies, and then my granddaughter asked the big question: "What are we going to do about this....what can we do"? 

We all know my quick response to her: "Start with the first step next November....get out and vote to remove these corrupt entitlement thieves from Congress...that's the most important thing you can do to help this country".

I finished my little talk, facing my granddaughter and said, "Remember when you used to say you wouldn't vote cause you didn't want to be part of the problem?  Well, if you don't get out to vote next November you will definitely be part of the problem". She smiled. I could tell I got through to her and her fiancee. 

And that's Politics with Pete for today...God bless our country...and our troops