Congress is elected to do what the American people ask them to do. Pretty simple, right? One important job of Congress is to draft and pass a balanced budget every year. So why has Congress only passed 4 budgets in the last 40 years? Could you get away with never paying all your bills? Do you have the ability to endlessly postpone payments and massage numbers without being held accountable at some point? Some may say, yes. They manage to move money around constantly, paying one bill two weeks late while using that money to pay the rent that’s due today. Hey, you do what you have to do; but eventually, that lifestyle is unsustainable.
For our government, however, there seems to be no end to the fiscal irresponsibility. When they don’t agree on where the money should be spent, they simply vote to extend the deadline. When the new deadline comes, they extend it some more. When they don’t have enough money for what they want, they promptly borrow more; and when there is no more to borrow, they just vote to raise the debt ceiling and borrow even more. At what point is Congress going to have to actually do their jobs and meet the annual budget deadline without extending it or dipping into the already overextended federal deficit? They do know what the word deadline means don’t they?
Greedy, overspending, power-hungry government officials who are unwilling to serve the American people have wasted taxpayer dollars unabated for too long. Enough is enough. No more excuses. Draw a line in the sand and declare that nothing else will get done until a budget is passed ON TIME and BALANCED by the required deadline. If that means the government will shut down, then so be it. Of course, nothing worth fighting for will go without difficulties, inconveniences, and downright suffering. Perhaps those natural consequences of inaction or incompetence will lead to actual results, because short of that, the beat goes on.
Is knowing they don’t have to meet the budget deadline crippling Congress? Is the lack of consequences for not completing a balanced budget on time encouraging poor work ethic? Conversely, if there were real, measurable, and negative consequences for not completing their assigned tasks, would we see the work being completed? Human nature says yes.
In the workforce, Americans are faced with deadlines everyday. Some important ones must be met at the risk of dire consequences to the business or to your employment status. Why do these same real world tenants not apply to our government? They are, after all, an extension of our everyday lives. Perhaps, this lack of accountability and everyday relatability is what allows for such incompetence, self-indulgence, and power-hungry decisions within our government agencies and committees. Is it time to call our government workers and servants to the same standard of their everyday working constituents?
Unfortunately, when people have been allowed to have their way for so long, it’s not easy to get them to change. In fact, you can expect pushback as soon as you bring up the subject of holding them accountable. This has been seen on full display since the outsider, Donald Trump, began his bid for the White House to become the 45th President of the United States. His aggressive campaigning to reduce waste in Washington and hold the lifelong bureaucrats accountable has been met with resistance to the point where civility is no longer the standard.
The raucous cries to get rid of him make so much sense when you realize he is rocking the boat of the comfortable, controlling, high-life-living career politicians as he demands they do their jobs. The difficult task of peeling away – finger by finger – the tight grip of power the government has and giving it back to the people to whom it belongs will continue to cause fallout. But, as is often the case, change can bring much pain. Prayerfully, getting to the other side of that pain will prove to be well worth the effort as the benefits of the changes begin to be felt in our daily lives.
#notafraidtothink #balancethebudget #reunifyourcountry
EmmSix 