Joey for Congress!

I can’t count real well. OK, I can’t count at all. (I am learning my left from my right. Beat that, Bo Obama!) But I do know that those numbers the president and Congress are simultaneously throwing around and ignoring would keep all of the world’s dogs and cats fed for an eternity.

What gets me is that if Mom and Dad were having financial problems, we couldn’t go to the bank – or China, for that matter – for an unsecured loan. And we definitely couldn’t get the Waltons, Gateses and Kennedys of this world to dig into their pockets to give us, say, 5 percent of their taxable earnings.

Nope, we’d have to start cutting costs. Things like cable TV and the home phone (that would be good riddance – I hate the sound of that thing!) would be gone. We’d have to move someplace cheaper, and I’d probably get fewer, if any, treats. Unlike the government, we definitely wouldn’t be looking for ways to spend more money. Don’t get me wrong. I wouldn’t mind a posh new crate, more treats and a new Toyota Cruiser to ride around in.

I could argue that spending that money would help the economy by helping the companies that make those things, which would mean a few more people would have jobs so they could spend money at a few more businesses that could then hire a few more people until eventually that money trickled back around to us. I can just see Mom and Dad telling the student loan people, the landlord and all the utility companies that they can’t pay their bills because they have to spend their money on things that will help grow the economy. Oh, and they’ll pay their bills when it all trickles back down. Yeah, right.

Even I know you can’t spend your way out of debt. Hey, maybe I should run for Congress!