These Are Most Definitely Not "Grimm's Fairy Tales"

Sometimes, the news is so grim that the best thing to do is just to report it as you see it.

I have generously lifted two telling quotes from the most recent postings from the Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Doug Elmendorf, and urge you to click through to read both of them in their entirety. Today. Right now.

They are not the sort of 'fun' reading you might want to read this summer like a good novel, detective story or historical account of a major event. Mr. Elmendorf will never win any awards for creative writing; how can he? He has a Ph.D in economics, commonly referred to as the "dismal science'.

There is nothing more 'dismal' than when a government is spending money recklessly, with abandon and with no end in sight. Just like today. On top of already spending close to $2 trillion in the last 6 months, our duly-elected leaders in the White House and in Congress are pushing for a health care 'reform' (sic?) package that will cost at least $1 trillion, (I am betting dollars to doughnuts it will wind up costing three times that amount) and a cap-and-trade global climate bill that will amount to massive increases in energy costs for the average consumer.

When will the madness ever end?

Anyway, here are the chilling quotes that got my attention from Professor Elemendorf at CBO:

• "Under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path—meaning that federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long run." (see "Path")

• "Although great uncertainty surrounds long-term fiscal projections, rising costs for health care and the aging of the U.S. population will cause federal spending to increase rapidly under any plausible scenario. Unless tax revenues increase just as rapidly, the rise in spending will produce growing budget deficits and accumulating debt. Large budget deficits would reduce national saving, leading to more borrowing from abroad and less domestic investment, which in turn would depress income growth in the United States. Keeping deficits and debt from reaching levels that could cause substantial harm to the economy would require increasing revenues significantly as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), decreasing projected spending sharply, or some combination of the two." (see "Harm")

And to think that this guy was appointed to his new post at CBO in January, 2009 when the new Administration and massive majorities in Congress took office! Aren't they paying any attention to this Princeton and Harvard-educated economist?

Again, please click through both of the links cited above to read these entries in their entirety. They will not be the most entertaining reading you'll do all summer unless you love to read Stephen King horror stories. Unfortunately they might be some of the most bone-chilling and yet, important words you will ever read in your lifetime.

I wish it were just some fairy tale, science-fiction or a dream-like sequence from Shakespeare but it most definitely is not. It is up to us to make our very own government change its ways. You would think they would know better.