The Arrogance of Ignorance
April 2013
I once knew a drunk who claimed that the only drinking problem that he had was when he couldn’t get another drink.
This is not unlike our esteemed “Spender in Chief” who appears to believe that the only spending problem that we have is when we run out of money to spend. Or, more accurately stated, when we run out of your money to spend.
This logic – or illogic – is pervasive… it can be seen throughout the government and at every level. From Obama to Pelosi to Reid and right on down to our own local representatives. They all seem to truly believe that we really don’t have a spending problem; we just don’t have enough money.
What the heck?? Do these people undergo some sort of fiscal lobotomy upon being elected? An operation that disconnects economic logic from the thought processes? A medical procedure that somehow removes the “Hey-do-we-really-need-that-and-can-we-really-afford-it” section of the brain?
And the answer is “Probably not.” At least not for most of them… Although I am not real sure about some of our beloved local reps…
No, the trouble is, most elected officials have never run anything in their lives. Except countless campaigns, of course. They are not business people… they have not been required to oversee a budget… they don’t know what a profit and loss statement is… and most importantly, they never have any of their own “skin in the game.”
Fact is, because they work for an outfit that can print its own money, a dollar (or a billion dollars) is like play money and spending it becomes like playing a game of monopoly. Except that the money they use is extorted from us – the taxpayers.
And after handling huge sums of other people’s money, they become used to it… they feel that they know what they are doing… and their financial ignorance becomes an arrogance… hence the idiotic statements by Obama, Pelosi and others.
So what to do? Well, maybe we should look at an aspiring politician’s resume before we elect them. See if they have run anything before we hire them to run our government. Determine if they have been fiscally prudent in their business before we invite them to stick their nose in our business. And, most importantly, check to see if they have ever really done anything.
Because if they have not done anything in the past, why would we think they can do anything in the future??
Dick
