I Ain't No Accountant But It Just Don't Add Up

I know it is not good grammar; didn't you ever watch Popeye?

We're supposed to learn from our experiences. Watching the president and the congress since September I'm thinking that may not apply when you experience no consequences for your actions. Amber used to hate it when she was a teenager and Debbie and I would tell her she would have to "suffer the consequences" when it came to decisions she made.

As a young family man I used to get into a troubling pattern. I would go to a department store to get clothing for myself and my family so we would have clothes for work and school. I would charge it to my card and then spend the next year paying it off. As soon as I got out of debt I would have to get back into it again because it was a new school year. It was a cycle of borrowing and spending and then paying off debt that I hated. It took a very long time to get out of that pattern and actually pay off the debt PLUS save enough that I could pay for the clothing from savings instead of borrowing.

As a business owner in the 90's I tried to spend my way to a prosperous business. I know...stupid. When the business was not doing well I borrowed more and more in a hope that I could turn it around and get the revenue up enough to be able to pay my debt. I went bankrupt because of that vicious and unwise attempt to save it.

This is exactly what I see happening in Washington D.C.!

There are times you have to go into debt. When I went into debt for clothing we shopped at Penney's and Mervin's; not Sak's Fifth Avenue and Foley's. I then worked out a plan to pay my debt in time to go into debt again.

When I was borrowing to pay for my debt with my business I was stupid. I was borrowing to make the payments on my debt until the bank said I had borrowed more than they were willing to fund. The corporation I had set up then had to liquidate and die.

The problem is we have people in Washington DC who have not learned from experience apparently. It makes me sick to watch their antics.