I’m listening to a John McCain stump speech right now, and listened to a Barack Obama speech earlier. I’m a bit of a politics watcher, in that politics has interested me since I was about 11 years old and the fight was between Humphrey and Nixon. One of the things John McCain keeps talking about is that he won’t spend our tax money and that spending is the root of the problem.
I’m not so sure about that.
All governments spend money. Conservative or liberal, all governments spend money. For me, the issue is how is the money spent, for what purposes, and how is the spending funded?
In the last 30 years since Nixon was first elected, every Republican administration has increased the debt and every Democratic administration has slowed the increase or even reversed it. Republicans got the idea somewhere that taxes were bad and that it was OK for our government to borrow money rather than getting tax revenues.
Borrowing money to spend instead of bringing it in through taxes is insane. Every one of us mere mortals that borrows more than we make and then spends borrowed money eventually winds up bankrupt. Where did we get the idea that government could do something people could not — and get away with it?
John McCain and many other Republicans believe that the current financial crisis came from bad mortgage debt. I disagree. I believe the crisis is simply the natural result of spending money that has to be borrowed.
It does look a lot like Barack Obama is about to win the election. Steve and I voted early because we didn’t want to risk having election day pass without casting our ballot. We are bugging all of our friends to be sure to vote early if at all possible. Vote early! This is a wonderful time to be alive!