The power of the presidential purse

Dan’s Column

It’s been a long time since the good nuns at St. Pius XI High taught me civics.

A little bit of the basics of American democracy linger in my graying head, and one of them is: Congress has the power of the purse. When I read about record-breaking Bush administration budget deficits and the impact they will have on the President we elect in November, I wonder if it’s fair to heap the blame on the executive branch of government.

I used to be a “Bushie.” Not any more. The President refused to wield his veto pen until the deficit was out of control, and still uses it all too infrequently. The spending bills he signs — bills unencumbered by any offsetting tax increases — come from Congress. Congress was controlled by Republicans early in the Bush years; lately, the Democrats have held the helm.

To blame ‘the Bush administration’ for America’s staggering deficit is incorrect. Congress is equally responsible. And that puts the onus back on we voters of whichever political stripe.

I’m just a small-town newspaper publisher. I’m not an economist. Or a politician. But I look at the deficit, at the candidates, and the ecomony, and I’m scared.

The economy’s tanking. From where I sit it looks like Americans gorged on easy credit. Our spending — most of which was based on borrowing - drove 75 per cent of the economy. We bought houses we couldn’t afford, thinking that ever-rising real estate prices would keep us out of trouble. We used the equity in our homes to buy toys. Banks grew fat on real estate loans until the bubble burst. Now the banks are writing down billions of dollars in home loans, credit has dried up, and we’ve cut back our household spending, with the possible exception of dollars pumped into the gas tank. All of which has predictably negative impacts on the national economy. The hurt is just beginning.

We, as consumers, could not control our spending, and now the country’s paying the economic price. See the parallel with government spending? The Congress and the President simply refuse to stop blowing money just as they refuse to increase taxes. The most outrageous pork-barrel projects are funded without a second thought. We pass the national plastic by selling bonds to the Chinese. We fund today’s frippery by mortgaging our grand-kids, and that’s wrong. Today we’re paying the economic price for the housing bubble. That will hurt, but it will be nothing compared to the pain of paying back the bonds we sold to fund our national equivalent of Botox treatments.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe we never need to balance our national checkbook. For myself, I know that if I let my expenses run wild without working for extra money, my friendly local banker’s not going to be friendly very long. I don’t believe that long term our country is any different.

The solution? Vote for statesmen this fall. Vote against the politicians of either party. Vote for the guy who’ll tell you your taxes will go up and the level of government services will go down. That’s the only way, long term, that we’ll de-mortgage our grand-kids.