Entitlement - You Don't Have One

Today's headlines from MSNBC tell me that McCain is accusing Obama as being a "typical tax-and-spend Democrat". The article goes on to refute the claim, talking about how Obama's plans may actually save the middle class tax money... whatever.

Do people not understand that in order to spend money, you really should HAVE it first? I ask again the question that I've asked a million times - if we don't tax, where does the money come from?

"Oh, Tami," you whine at me, "I can't afford any more taxes! The world is bleeding me dry!". Well guess what? The world is bleeding me dry, too. I have the strictest budget of my life, now that I have a house, and it's all gone to hell since my gas budget went from $250 a month in March to FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS in June. That's a serious adjustment to make. I did it, but I'm not happy about curbing my very spoiled spending habits.

Still, curb them I have. Do you know why? Because when you don't have the money to pay for things, the responsible thing to do is not to buy them. You can't go without necessities, but maybe we can all take a step back and consider what's a necessity and what's not these days. For example, I do not have movie channels on my cable TV subscription to save a few bucks. Guess what? Even the cable is a luxury. I want social programs, and art grants, and beautiful public parks as much as the next person, maybe more, but someone has to pay for them. Seriously.

The thing that kills me most about the idea of "tax and spend" as an insult, is of course the fact that the other side of the coin isn't "not spend". Oh, no. All the talk of smaller government is bull, we don't have smaller government, we just have a less efficient government who can't help the people. In this age of Republican rule, are we spending less to go with our shiny lower taxes and economic stimulus checks? No, sir, our debt levels are just going up. What am I going to say now, can you guess? I bet you can! The other side of "tax and spend", my friends, is "borrow and spend".

Guess which one I think is worse.