Have you seen the latest political poll? I read recently that 20% of respondents (as of June 2022) approve of the way congress is handling its job (see here). Are you as shocked as I am? Do you know anyone who thinks congress is doing its job well? Can you guess who those one-out-of-every-fives might be, those who approve of the mess congress is making? Could they be government employees? Or might they simply lack analytical skills?

Congress excels at shouting among its members as arguments erupt about regulating every animal, vegetable, and mineral in the country (Do something! is the cry.), while the same group is simultaneously spending us into bankruptcy. I don’t claim to be an economist, but I have been exposed to the basics of that dismal science, as documented by my undergraduate degree (B.S. in Economics, University of Wisconsin).

Surging inflation is the latest fiasco out of Washington. Various factors can induce inflation, the prime ones being excessive government spending and printing too much money (let’s not forget FOMC chairman Jerome H Powell and his cohorts who kept interest rates ridiculously low while flooding our economy with cheap money, one of their reasons being to get inflation above 2%). Boy, did they succeed! So now Powell et al. are raising interest rates in a hurry to recover from their blunder. To add one more obvious cause, a general shortage of services and goods also is inflationary. 

With interest rates rising, another problem is looming. The cost of servicing our huge national debt at higher interest rates will siphon more and more dollars from other government spending. The numbers are huge. Here are some data provided by Red Jahncke in a column in the June 30th Wall Street Journal. Take a deep breath and read on.

Total federal gross interest cost over the 12 months ending on May 31 was $666 billion. If we include the impending extra interest on Treasury bills and the maturing notes, that figure rises to $863 billion. This is a staggering cost. National military spending was $746 billion over the past 12 months; Medicare spending was $700 billion. (My emphasis) Ouch, think of spending more for governmental debt than for Medicare, or for national defense? Is that where you want your tax dollars to go? Will our representatives ever be held accountable?

To put the above numbers into context, congress’s deficit spending will cost us, the taxpayers, nearly a trillion dollars per year, just to pay off federal borrowing necessitated by congressional splurging, which of course has inflated our national debt. As I type this, the debt is $30,550,000,000 (Yep, that’s 30+ TRILLIONS), and rocketing upward by the second. If you want to see how fast the ugly beast grows, just take a look here. Warning! Watching it grow will make you shudder.

To bring this down to the level of individuals like you and me, our present national debt comes to nearly $92,000 per citizen. So if Mom and Dad and each of the kids would write a check for nearly a hundred grand, payable to the U.S. Government, we would be free of debt, at least until our Washington hoodlums resumed spending more than our government takes in. It isn’t their money, but they do love to spend it, and sometimes, it is clear, merely spend it to get reelected. Some aren’t even shy about admitting that fact, as I read recently.

“It is actually delusional to believe Dems can get reelected without acting on filibuster or student debt,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted in December. Rep. Ayanna Pressley said in May: “Democrats win when we deliver, and we have to deliver in ways that are impactful, tangible and transformative, like canceling student debt.” A headline on an April column in the Los Angeles Times read “Elizabeth Warren knows how Democrats can win the midterms. It starts with canceling student loan debt.” For the full text of this article, see here.

Ah yes, the government’s “free” cafeteria (remember, we taxpayers end up with the bill). Is it possible that the above dollars for votes scheme may backfire? I think President’s Biden latest goal is to cancel $10,000 of student debt for all those indebted. But what about those who have paid off their student loans? What about the rest of us who never had college debt? What can our sleazy politicians offer us? Couldn’t we all use an extra ten grand? Where shall we stand in line with hands out for our comparable bribes?

If this sounds like a shot at the above politicians, it definitely is, but I am an equal opportunity marksman, as I’ve demonstrated earlier (See here, here, here, and here), and I see no redeeming value in congressional republicans. If we ever needed term limits for our congressional crew, I am convinced we need them now more than ever.

Writing about politics raises my blood pressure, so I’ll avoid the topic for a while now. Next time I’ll get back to talking more about the science of aging. Stay tuned.