Have you ever had too much to drink, perhaps more than a couple too many? And then what? Eventually the party ended, the bottle ran dry, the bar closed, or the money was gone. Then you began the path towards recovery. Along that path was almost certainly a hang-over, the painful reminder that you’d overdone things. What I’ve just described might be called binge-drinking.

There are other things which can be done to excess and our country is headed down the path of binge-spending. In May President Obama said “We are out of money”, and yet, our government is spending more. It seems that our leaders want to push healthcare more than they want to find a way to live within our country’s means. We’ve racked up a national debt that is nearly equal to our annual gross domestic product (GDP).

You can think of it this way… If you go to the store and find yourself a bit short on funds to get what you’d like, you probably have to rethink your plan, pass up a few nice-to-haves, and focus on your needs. Only after saving can you get the things you previously wanted but were unable to afford.

That’s not what many of our leaders are doing. They’re shopping in the “healthcare aisle” for a program and right now they don’t even have a plan to pay back what they’ve already overspent. They’re not even working on such a plan.

So, what’s the position of our current representative, Congressman David Wu? His website says “Part of my role as a member of Congress is to secure federal funds that would have been spent elsewhere for urgent needs in my district.” That is the only role or responsibility that he lists on his home page. His attitude is just like the heavy drinker reaching for another shot because “Somebody’s going to drink it. It might as well be me.”

What about the alternative, Congressman Wu? That is, avoiding the next drink or passing on the next project. How about putting off the next thing like healthcare reform until we know how we’re going to pay for the things we already have, like Medicare and Social Security, both of which are insolvent?

So, how would a person fully overcome binge-drinking? You have to fundamentally transform your life. That often means building new habits and staying away from the people that enabled your old lifestyle. These steps are always difficult but the outcome is worth the effort.

Getting clear of our binge-spending requires the same type of transformation. We have to change our country’s habits so that we buy only the things we can afford. And, we need to get rid of our “friends” – the leaders that are telling us that unbridled deficit spending is okay. Common sense tells us that our current behaviors cannot last and will ultimately hurt us. The sooner we start our recovery steps, the less painful it will be.

Please join the resistance to irresponsible government spending that will impoverish us all.

Join the Resistance! Set America Free.

Sincerely,

Doug Keller