And true to the perverse notion of finally taking some (any!) sort of responsibility for this fiscal Frankenstein's monster, the 112th Congress, when Harry Reid's Senate refused to even come up with a budget and all of Congress voted almost unanimously to reject Obama's budget proposals, came up with the Sequester in the Budget Control Act of 2011, touted as an even split of drastic cuts with half coming from domestic spending and the other half from defense.
That might make sense if you ignore (as does the press) the fact that defense constitutes only 18 percent of the federal budget. Thus we are placing the proportional lion's share on the backs of our military, at a time when the jihadi threat continues to escalate.
Obama, though, has taken a few moments yesterday from his golf game in Hawaii to declare that the Afghan War is over. So shall it be written; so shall it be done. We needn't bother with wars henceforth according to his light, though he and his journalist lotus eaters forget that fundamental idea that it doesn't take two sides to fight a war - only one, and no one has thought to include the opinion of the Taliban.
But the accumulation of this massive overall debt continues, and the press parrots the administration when they spread the good news that the pace has slowed somewhat, but always compared to the beginning of Obama as president. One should always wonder why the historical analysts start at a certain point in time, as opposed to any other, and take note that Obama is on track before the end of his reign to add more debt to this nation than all other presidents combined.
We must hope that the incoming 114th Congress, now with the Republicans in charge, will do better.
And we should always heed the words of 17th-century English historian and pastor Thomas Fuller: "Debt is the worst poverty."
We're circling the drain. But, meanwhile, have a good 2015!
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