Opinion : Money, money, money

The last four years, pre-Trump, were awful. I mean awful in every way that you can think. I will say that they were the worst on the bank account. But then I think morally it may have been worse. I don't remember ever seeing people topless on the White House lawn before the Biden administration.

For the most part, I can skate by on a razor-thin margin and with not much in the bank account...call it marital training. But the last four years were awful. Terrible. Insanely impossible. I finally had to do things that I didn't ever want to do and that was to let go of things that I didn't want to part with. That's when I get cranky.

When it came to paying the bills, I'm one of those people that believe in paying the bills. So I did. On the flip side, I'd just lived with a guy for decades whose motto was, "If you have a dime, you must spend it, and fast!" Throughout our marriage, I tried to stash a few dollars back, "just in case." The first time it was spent to launch this website. For three months our family of eight lived off of what I had squirreled away. It took another decade to rebuild that account. The second time it was discovered that I had amassed a few thousand dollars, we "had an emergency."

Before DOGE I had always thought that we needed someone in the Federal Government to go in and do some serious cutting in our spending. The government takes my exes theory that if you have a dime you spend it to, "If we're out of dimes, let's just print some monopoly money and continue this game!"

Now, Republicans and Democrats are as equally responsible for our national debt which passed $37 TRILLION dollars.

The Democrats shared a chart last week of just how bad it's been. Groceries they said are the highest that they've ever been. Miraculously, they didn't notice that the process started to skyrocket in 2021 after the pandemic. After the election. With Presidet Biden in charge, or President Auto Pen as it were, it was off to the races. The prices climbed until, hmmm, the 2024 election when the adults returned to Washington D.C.

Things calmed down and in some cases, prices are dropping. They are even leveling out. The only prices that are still struggling are in the meat and dairy departments.

It's kind of funny. We always hear how it wasn't Biden's fault that the prices went up, while the same people scream about how President Trump hadn't lowered the egg prices in the first week in office. Oh, and the egg prices are down now.

After the Democrats posted the chart in an attempt to nail Trump by showing the price hikes, the guy in the dunce cap yanked it down. Apparently Mr. Dunce needed someone with a crayon box to highlight the last four years in the chart. Prices went from very low to spiking. When Trump was elected, it all settled down. This was a real-life example of "that chart doesn't say what you think it says."

"Turns out we just needed a new president," as President Trump said. Wait he said that concerning the border insanity, but apparently for the sake of our money and peace around the world, we can thank Trump. Or should.

So that's where we are, in real life. Things have started to suck a little less. Groceries while still high, are finally allowing us to breathe a little.

So here's to thanking the Democrat party for pointing out the obvious for all of us. Even poor Bill Maher, bless his heart, admitted that things are better than he thought they'd be under Trump. Coming from a guy that's on the left side of the aisle, well, that took some guts to admit. Here he is eating a little crow.

Trump likes to call this the "golden age" - of course. It's not yet. As of this writing, our national debt clock was rolling past $37 TRILLION dollars. Now the idiot Republicans, in all of their wisdom, found an extra dime in their pocket. They are talking about how we have extra money now, let's cut some checks to Americans. You know, like Biden did in 2021.

I called it bribery in 2021, and I call it that now. Under Trump, the Republicans were or are tossing around the idea of a $600 rebate check, much smaller than the $2,000 or $2,500 (I can't remember how much it was) that Biden sent out. I mean if we are going to continue to go into federal debt, you might as well throw on a few more zeros. It's not real money anyway at this point, it's just paper with nothing to back it up.

Another random thought. Did you notice that discussions about auditing Fort Knox kind of went away? I'm guessing a memo crossed the president's desk that said, "Nothing to see here..." so the road trip got cancelled. I'm humming a twist to Toby Keith's song. "We aren't as good as we once was..."

I don't know. i think it's time for the government officials to take a class with Dave Ramsey who suggests that if you don't have money, you eat beans and rice until you do. Our country is broker than broke. We are going to be living like my aunt and uncle pretty soon.

They had a huge, expensive house back in the day. It was in a great neighborhood. They'd host all of the family get-togethers. In the summer, it was so hot inside because they couldn't afford to turn on the air conditioning. At Christmas, they couldn't afford to turn on the heat. But they had a nice house. It looked good to the neighbors. But, they lived outside their means.

America is doing the same. We look good to the neighbors, but we are living way outside our means. I don't want another "rebate check." I want the debt clock to go in reverse. I want more cuts. Cuts are painful, I know. I've lived decades in the "beans and rice" mode. It can be done.

Until the Republicans and Democrats get serious, and I mean from the local to the federal level, if the ship doesn't go down with this generation, it will in the next. And it will be our fault. We had to have a new car that we couldn't afford. We had to hand out checks that probably have nothing backing them. We have to appear richer than the neighbors.

It's time to stop. The debt is our debt. Your debt. My debt. Our kids' debt. Our grandkids' debt. The debt of those not even born yet.

Where are the responsible adults?

I think they have left the building.