Workplace Calisthenics: Government continues to buy expensive 'gifts' on credit

Cal LeMon, of Executive Enrichment Inc., solves organizational problems with customized training and consulting.

For those who believe that Washington, D.C., is this droll bureaucratic wasteland perched on the Potomac dispensing Scroogeisms in the aftermath of 2003 look again.

D.C. is up to its file cabinets and monuments in good cheer and gift-giving! Why, not a day goes by when Republicans and Democrats do not trip over each other on the way to a credit card machine to make another purchase for us.

But, if you haven't noticed, the credit card they are using has your name on it and the names of your children and the names of your grandchildren.

Math has never been my forte, but I know binge buying when I see it I have two daughters.

I am confused that the presidential election of 2000 was built on "fiscal restraint" and "a smaller federal government" only to find out that deficit, addictive buying is not only acceptable, but advantageous. It is no secret that this administration does not believe in a budget, especially a balanced one.

Add up the numbers.

This nation ended the fiscal year on Sept. 30 with a $374 billion debt. I can hear some of you screaming right now, "Well, Mr. Wannabe Economist, we are at war."

You are right. We are at war, but $374 billion did not pay for the war. The war is small change.

Let's talk about the feel-good tax cuts approved in May that will result in 300 billion fewer tax dollars. That means this economy has to produce $300 billion in additional revenues just to stay even.

There are few among us who would not quietly admit that the tax cut was nothing more than political fodder for some yet-to-be produced 30-second TV spot in the next election.

Wait a minute, why don't we go shopping for a new energy bill that would have added another $23 billion in tax cuts if it had made it through the Senate.

And the shopping spree with the Medicare bill still confounds me. How does it make sense to take on $400 billion in debt over the next 10 years when the program is already approaching insolvency?

As someone who is counting on Social Security and Medicare in my immediate future, I'm scared spitless.

The Medicare bill and tax cut laws have been backloaded. That just means the "paid in full" will not happen for five to seven more years. The Medicare drug benefit will not be in effect until the 2007 fiscal year.

In other words, we have made a purchase, like the ones advertised in the Sunday paper, which will not require a payment for three years.

When you put all of this debt together, with the discretionary spending of $87.5 billion for rebuilding Afghanistan and Iraq, we could be looking at a national debt of around $700 billion dollars in the next fiscal year.

Ed McKelvey, an economist at Goldman Sachs, wrote in a recent newsletter that "the U.S. federal budget is out of control."

It seems some of our elected officials are saying, "So what?"

This political environment is infected with a giddy narcissism that screams back at the red ink, "Hey, eat, drink and be in debt tomorrow we die."

Hey, if you or I are on the receiving end of the generosity of Daddy Warbush, well, what is there to bellyache about? If you are employed by an HMO, a drug manufacturer, an energy producer, or a politician with lots of senior adults in your district (I am a card-carrying member of AARP) hey, Christmas came early this year!

But that is the problem. Everyone is on the take. If some of this gargantuan federal debt ends up in our pocket, then who really cares!

And, is this debt going to get any smaller?

Joshua Bolten, the president's budget director recently told Congress the current deficit was "manageable if we continue pro-growth economic policies and exercise serious spending discipline." If the news this past week reflects "serious spending discipline," then we are in for some serious deficit numbers.

I love Christmas the caroling, twinkling trees, goodwill and gift-giving. But I'm having trouble this year with the news from Washington that politicians are using a credit card with my name on it. And they have one with my children's name, and they have one with my grandchild's name.