By Larry Craig

Congress just passed a bill that allows our government to continue spending money at its current rate for another two months.

This is considered by most as being a good thing, because then the government won’t shut down due to running out of money. Actually, it wouldn’t run out of money. It would be tantamount to leaving your wallet at home while at the store. You have the money, you just can’t access it right at that moment.

Lawmakers say that we would be defaulting on our debt if we didn’t raise the debt ceiling.

No. We would be defaulting on our debt if we were going out of business.

But we are not.

What they might not mention is that it’s not that there isn’t enough money to be had. This is money that they want to borrow.

The government is in debt. Lawmakers are not interested in paying off the debt. They are only interested in paying interest on that debt.

They don’t see a problem with this.

Does anybody see a problem with this?

You wouldn’t do this. You wouldn’t advise anybody to do this.

Only very foolish people (and our federal government) would keep going deeper and deeper into debt without any intention of paying off that debt. You can add some state governments to that as well.

This means that an ever-increasing amount of money will be used for interest payments — just totally wasted money. Billions and billions of dollars every year.

In its extraordinary wisdom, the Federal Reserve Bank, which for some unknown reason has been given responsibility for the health of our economy, has been keeping interests rates as low as possible for years now.

They say this is to stimulate the economy. It is also to hide the magnitude of government debt as well as to lower the interest payments.

When I was a kid, it was common for people to retire and live off the interest on their savings accounts. But since the government has gone off on its spend-as-much-money-as-possible agenda, the Fed has no interest in returning to normal interest rates. Then we would be spending a trillion dollars a year just on interest. Again, totally wasted money.

So the government has totally ruined a significant retirement option for millions of our people.

Why?

The short answer would be that lawmakers want(ed) to use the money for short-term political gain. The more money they spend, which is often just given to people in some way, the more public favor they believe they will receive. They can create new headlines to distract people from the long-term losses to our people.

I believe it is time to end this. Long past time. And we need to do it now.

You may ask how we can do this. What action can I take right now to change this?

And I would have to say I don’t know.

You can write the politicians, but I don’t even know if they will see the letters. You can write the newspapers, but they won’t print the letters.

The place to start is public awareness. Talk about this every time you get in a political discussion.

If you meet candidates, tell them what you think. Don’t just ask them what they think. Tell them what you think and expect.

The biggest problems in government right now are not specific bills but the culture. Writing massive bills that are too big to read and discuss. Voting for 10 things you don’t like to get five things you do. Drawing congressional districts that almost ensure a particular party’s success. Spending money that only increases the size of the federal government and the dependency of the American people on the government.

Oh, and spending money the government doesn’t have so that it has to borrow money. And that includes letting the Federal Reserve create money, but that’s another story.

All these things have gone on for too long with nobody apparently trying to stop it. A few people have tried. Rand Paul is one. But he’s not trying hard enough. Either that or the system is too entrenched for him to make any headway. If you’re not in the majority party in the Senate or the House, the leaders of those chambers won’t give you much attention.

So it’s up to us. The people. I’m sorry I can’t give you more things to do with a greater chance of success. Maybe somebody reading this can do that. I hope so.