I used to joke about Congress, but not any more.
If the last few weeks haven’t convinced me of anything else, they have convinced me that Congress is no laughing matter. It is too sad to be funny.
After the debt reduction fiasco they all went home and left without extending the FAA authorization. This robbed the govmint itself of a fortune in uncollected per-leg taxes on the airlines. Somebody noticed all the ridicule and Obama came through with—guess what—another temporary authorization. Amazing!
Of course I was furious before that. The debt reduction mess never did anything about debt reduction. Did you ever hear them talk about debt reduction? Hell, no—they argued about deficit reduction, deficit reduction, deficit reduction, deficit reduction.
Does Congress not know the difference between debt and deficit? The deficit is only the amount by which we go in the hole each year, the rate by which we are increasing the debt every year—the amount by which we are speeding to hell in that old hand basket each year.
If Congress doesn’t understand the difference, somebody needed to tell them and somebody did.
You can’t reduce debt by lowering the deficit.
And somebody else has explained that to Congress.
To reduce debt it is necessary to eliminate deficits entirely, and then some.
And somebody told Congress.
That somebody is Standard & Poor's.
I hope Congress listened.
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