I’ve had a lot of people ask me if Congress is spending money like drunken sailors. The more I’ve thought about it, the more I don’t think it’s accurate. For one thing, it is unfair to drunken sailors. When drunken sailors run out of money- they stop spending.

In Washington, when they run out of money- they simply print more. Congress writes itself an IOU and passes the debt on to our children and grandchildren. Drunken sailors simply pass out.

This week, the House passed a $410 billion dollar Omnibus bill to fund the federal government for the rest of the year. This bill was an 8.4% increase over last year’s spending or about $32 billion dollars more. Just a few weeks ago, Congress passed a $789 billion dollar stimulus bill. I felt that we should have passed a budget that froze spending at last year’s levels.

This year’s deficit alone is projected at $1.75 trillion and growing. This would be the largest deficit in U.S. history, as well as the largest deficit as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in history outside of World War II.

The Administration is also proposing $1.5 trillion in new spending on healthcare including a $634 billion dollar reserve fund. The budget also includes a “placeholder” for another $750 billion dollar bailout.

Not surprisingly, they want Americans to pay for it all with $1.4 billion in tax increases on small businesses, charities, seniors and everyone who has a 401K or uses energy.

That is one nice thing about a drunken sailor; at least he spends his own money.

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