Making the Federal debt ceiling understandable

OK let me try to put this in terms we can understand.

President = me

Congress = my credit card companies

Federal Debt Ceiling = the combined credit limit of all my credit cards

Federal budget = my spending habits each year

Federal total tax revenue = my salary

Mandated federal spending = my rent and minimum payment on my credit cards

Let's say I make $100,000 per year but am planning to spend $200,000. And, I'm $500,000 in debt on my credit cards from spending too much in previous years (but the interest rate is low).

My credit card companies said they'll freeze my credit limit (they've been raising it each time I hit the max in the past) unless I come up with a spending plan that limits my spending over the next 10 years to only about $150,000 per year (still way more than my income).

If I don't come up with that plan by Aug 2, they'll stop letting me use my charge cards. I can still use my salary to pay the rent and minimum credit card payments, but I can't borrow more.

Of course, if I cut $50,000 out of my spending each year, my florist, my travel agent, my barber, and my clothier are all going to feel some pain. Maybe my kids, too.

So where has my analogy gone astray?

Political Absurdity

Today, Congress hauled the CEO's of some major mortgage companies to the Capitol to excoriate them on making huge salaries while their companies lost huge sums of revenue. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) asked how they had the nerve to take a big salary while their company was going down the tubes?

Excuse me, Henry... how's your organization doing? Last I heard it was in the hole about the size of the national debt! Wait... it IS the national debt! How can Congressmen seriously ask that question?

Al Gore, Nobel Peace Prize

So the rumors abound that Al Gore will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize tomorrow for his "work" on climate change.

Before you freak out, remember that the Nobel committee lost most of its credibility in 1994 when they awarded it to master terrorist and despot, Yasser Arafat. So how much worse can it be to award it to a guy whose hot air and SUV emissions contributes more to global warming than any two real men?

Hillary Clinton's $5000 Stupidity

So Hillary said today, according to the AP, that she wants to give $5000 to every child born in America (at four million per year, that's $20 billion annually). Here are the two stupidest quotes from the article:

Clinton said such an account program would help Americans get back to the tradition of savings that she remembers as a child, and has become harder to accomplish in the face of rising college and housing costs.

"I think it's a wonderful idea," said Rep. Stephanie Stubbs Jones, an Ohio Democrat who attended the event and has already endorsed Clinton. "Every child born in the United States today owes $27,000 on the national debt, why not let them come get $5,000 to grow until their 18?"

No, Hillary, it will keep Americans in the tradition of expecting to get everything from the government (which is what you really want, isn't it?)

And Rep. Jones, you fool, this plan will mean that every baby born will now owes $32,000 on the national debt!

By the way, I'm wondering if it was Rep. Jones, or the AP reporter, who used the wrong "they're" in her quote.

What did Larry Craig do Wrong?

I don't get this whole Larry Craig "incident."

So he made some gestures in a mens room that I wouldn't recognize as anything but invading my space. He put his suitcase against the door of the stall. Where else would it fit?

Even if he came right out and propositioned a man in the mens room, how is that not an exercise of free speech? I think the airport police are caving into complaints by homophobe travelers and caving in to their own homophobia, and setting up the equivalent of a Georgia Highway Patrol speed trap. You know, where they hide behind a sign, clock you at 10 over the limit and say, "Wellll, I should arrest y'all and hold ya till the judge gets back from bass fishin... should be sometime Monday afternoon... or if y'all jes wanna pay the fine and be done with it, we can do that heah." Except here at the airport, it's "Do you want to plead guilty and pay a fine, and we'll keep this out of the press (yeah right) or do you want to miss your flight..."

I know why Democrats are acting disgusted. They want one more Republican out of the Senate. I know why Republicans are acting disgusted. They're caving in to their own homophobia or that of the few constituents they have left. Bill Clinton knew how to handle sexual scandal. He did it on company time, in the Oval Office, and said, "so what?" and his constituents, who care more about liberal views than lack of personal character, just loved him more for it.

What's the big deal about what Larry Craig did? "Real men" (like me) can just say no. The only people "protected" by this kind of policing are straight men, and I thought we gave up the last of our constitutional rights a few decades ago. Please, I need protection from an old man like Larry Craig, and I need it from some pretty-boy cop who made eyes with the Senator? I'm insulted.