You’ve reached the edge……again. You and your spouse are sitting at the table with all of your bills scattered across. Every year or so, the same thing happens, but you’ve never really wanted to face it.

The math is unavoidable. For several years now, you’ve spent more than your income. It’s the result of many good intentions, but now you are in a position where you realize that there are many promises you simply cannot afford to keep –

· You’ve been giving Mom a few hundred bucks a month, because without it, she simply won’t be able to make ends meet.

· You’re paying the kids college bills, so they don’t have to work.

· The neighbor has been having some trouble, so you slip him a few bucks just to help.

You look at the rest of your monthly bills –

· Your house payment

· Your car payment

· Utilities

And then you see the rest of the expenses –

· Subscriptions to various magazines

· The cable bill

· HBO/Showtime/Cinemax

· Netflix

· Eating out at restaurants every evening

· A cell phone for every family member

Until now, you’ve been able to avoid the inevitable by paying with your credit cards. When you would max out one, you would just apply for another. You’ve kept up with the minimum payments, so it hasn’t hurt your credit…….yet.

And now, you’re against the wall. You sit down with your paycheck. You make $6,000 per month. You add up all the bills. They add to $10,000 per month. You’re faced with two choices – do I pay for just the necessities, or do I apply for yet another credit card?

This is the dilemma facing our federal government.

Before August 3, our government has some difficult choices to make. They have been spending 40% more than their income, and the bill is coming due…..again.

Folks on the left are framing the debate as not having enough money to pay for the necessities without asking for more debt.  What the left won't tell you is what they consider to be necessities.   WE HAVE PLENTY OF MONEY TO PAY FOR THOSE THINGS SANE PEOPLE CONSIDER THE NECESSITIES.

The government will not stop receiving income (taxpayer money) on August 3.  They will only have run out of money on the credit card to pay for things.

The government will have enough money coming in to pay for –

· interest on the debt

· Social Security

· Medicare

· Medicaid

· Military pay

The government WON’T have enough money for –

· government-issued credit cards going to FORMER government employees

· paying folks to hold up a shovel on a road construction site

· paying Greece’s debt

· providing ammunition to Pakistanis that will be shot back at us

Failure to raise the debt ceiling will not cause a catastrophe UNLESS PRESIDENT OBAMA WISHES IT TO CAUSE A CATASTROPHE. He will have plenty of money to pay for the essentials. The choice is his as to how he will spend it. Will he spend it on the essentials like Social Security, Medicare and interest debt? Or will he decide he wants to spend it on keeping his constituencies happy, while pointing a finger of blame at those dastardly Republicans?

Dear Mr. President,

Things are kind of challenging right now, aren’t they?  Your poll numbers are getting worse, it looks like your party may lose the House, and the economy is horrible. 

I understand that in between vacations and golf you are busy trying to fix things, but I have one request, if I may.

Quit blaming everything on your predecessor, President Bush.

You are constantly saying, to anyone who will listen, that you ‘inherited’ this mess. 

Mr. President, with all due respect, you didn’t ‘inherit’ this mess.  YOU ASKED FOR THE JOB.  You campaigned endlessly about how you and your party would be able to improve the situations of millions of Americans.  You talked of ‘hope’ and ‘change’.  Tomorrow would be a new day.  The seas would stop rising, and the earth would stop warming.

Most of us on the right saw through your façade.  We knew that you had no leadership experience.  You had no experience running a government agency at any level or even a small business.  You made fun of an opponent because she had only run a small state as Governor, where you had run a successful campaign with a larger budget.  Buying ads for your campaign is a little different than actually paying the help, isn’t it?

You may not have realized it, but asking to lead the American economy is like buying a business, Mr. President.  A number of us on the right understand that, because we’ve either bought or started businesses ourselves.  And when you buy a business, you buy it with the expectation of improving it.  You don’t blame your current difficulties on the previous owner of the business.  YOU BOUGHT IT.  You expected to improve it.  Those who voted for you expected you to improve it as well.  While I’m not a fan of having an inexperienced person learn on the fly – using my and my children’s and grandchildren’s money – you’ve got the job.

And now you’ve discovered how hard it is to run a business.  Your customers don’t like excuses.  And the employees look to the leader for direction.

While your base will support you come hell or high water, the rest of us are tired of your response being, “You should blame the last guy for the things happening today.” 

If you haven’t noticed, your excuse making has aggravated the situation.  You see, when people see your predecessors say that sex isn’t sex, and people see you blame all problems on the other guy, your followers wonder why they should be responsible for anything.  They’ve learned from their leaders that NOTHING is their fault.  From single-mother pregnancies to mortgage defaults, excuses are the currency of today.  We’ve gone from “The Buck Stops Here” to “SQUIRREL!”

And so, Mr. President, I ask that you ‘man up’.  You may not like it, but you own it.  Your party has been in charge of the checkbook (the House and Senate) since 2006, and you started to lead in January, 2009.  It’s been in your hands for 18 months, and we’re tired of hearing about the last guy.  The buck doesn’t stop on his desk – it stops on yours.

Just some random questions that have come to mind in the past few days.

1.  Can I get a definition on ‘poor’, ‘middle class’, and ‘rich’, please?  I continue to hear about ‘tax cuts for the rich’, ‘disproportionately affecting the poor’, and the ‘shrinking middle class’ from politicians who may not have my best interests at heart.  I would prefer hearing an answer by income level, but at this point, I'll take anything.

I suspect the definitions are –

‘poor’ – anyone who depends on the government for a paycheck, and can be scared into voting Democrat by hearing, “The Republicans will take away all of your benefits and force you and your family to live under a bridge.”

‘middle class’ – folks who are not getting a check from the government, and are financially anywhere from paycheck-to-paycheck status to retired and living on their investments.

‘rich’ – see ‘middle class’.  They (the ‘middle class’) just haven’t figured it out yet.  Also, anyone with a job at a bank, investment firm, insurance company, or oil company.

2.  Explain to me how it’s a tax CUT if I have to buy something to get it?  How did the government lower my taxes if I have to buy a house, refrigerator, car, or new windows to get the benefit?

3.  Is it a tax or a fee?  The Oklahoma Legislature just passed a law requiring insurance companies to pay a 1% ‘fee’ to the state on all health insurance claims they pay out.  Maybe it’s just me, but to me a fee is what you pay when you get your drivers license.  I pay you a ‘fee’, you give me a good or service.  A ‘tax’ is what you are charged for the privilege of doing business in a city, county, state, or country.  You directly receive no goods or services in exchange for the ‘tax’.  It’s for the common good.

Something tells me this 1% insurance fee is called a fee because those who passed it don’t have the stones to call it a tax.

Dear Contractors,

            As you already know, the government has decided that they need to place a new mandate on you regarding how to handle remodeling homes that were built before 1978.  It seems that fears of possible lead contamination in the paint of these older homes requires immediate action by the government in order to prove that they actually do something.  You may believe that your own common sense is enough to handle the situation, but it’s possible that you may take the paint scrapings and inject them into puppies, and the government simply cannot risk more puppies with brain damage.

            As one who has had to deal with multiple new government regulations in the past few years, allow me to give you a primer on what to expect.

            You will be required to take expensive classes on how to properly scrape paint.  Yes, I know that you’ve been scraping paint for 30 years, and that you’re no worse for wear, and that none of your customers have complained of brain damage, spasms, or metallic tastes after you’re done.  I know that you’ve taken care to not get any paint stains or scrapings on the carpet, else you be fired.  None of that matters.  You’re not doing it right.  And it’s going to cost you.

            You will be required to dispose of the paint shavings ‘properly’.  Throwing the scrapings and dust into a heavy-duty contractor’s trash bag will no longer work.  We can’t risk having those shavings end up in the landfill, and the lead back in our drinking water.  The government is well aware that lead is a naturally-occurring element, and can end up in our drinking water anyway, but SHUT UP ALREADY.  WE’RE FROM THE GOVERNMENT, AND WE KNOW BETTER.  IT’S FOR THE CHILDREN.  YOU DON’T HATE CHILDREN, DO YOU?

            You will be required to fill out all forms documenting proper paint scraping and shaving disposal in triplicate, and keep the forms for 10 years after the house you remodeled has been torn down.  Fortunately, you are a contractor, and well suited to add a room onto your own house to store these forms.

            Your customers and the government will be stunned – STUNNED – that the prices you charge will go up in order to compensate for the extra expenses.  You see, as an American citizen, the government expects you to follow every mandate without raising your prices to cover the costs.  In the magical world of government, you can print your own money, so they don’t get it when you explain that following these mandates will cost money.  After all, those same government employees have never held a job in the private sector before, so they’ve never understood that cause/effect thing.  And you’re an independent business owner, so you must be rich anyway.

Eventually, you’ll find out that there is no enforcement agency to make sure that you are following the rules.  The government is great at requiring new laws, but lousy at actually funding some department to enforce them.  The only time you should be worried is during sweeps week.  The local TV station will set up webcams and watch you work on an older home.  When you spill some dust while changing the filter in your new, industrial vacuum cleaner (it only costs $10,000!), the crew will rush out of the closet and ask how you feel about causing birth defects in kittens.  The EPA will MapQuest Coon Holler, Oklahoma, fly in and arrest you to show how stringently they are working to save the environment.  

Fox News will eventually pick up the story and interview your cousin on Fox and Friends.  Please ask him to wear his best overalls.

            You may notice that some of the larger contracting companies will get away with cutting the corners on some of these rules.  That’s because they make campaign contributions, and you don’t.  If they get busted, it’s nothing that a phone call and a little cash can’t fix.

            Lastly, when you complain about the new rules and the expenses of them, you will be reminded that as an independent business owner, you are rich, and you should "shut up you redneck, Bible-thumping, gun-toting, Palin-loving, tea-bagger."

            Be prepared.