Stop and Let Me Off

It was during one of our Sunday cruises around the valley, that I realized that the wifey and I have more money than our Government. Yes folks, like many others, we-- who have had our own struggles during the economic downturn-- now have more discretionary cash on hand than either California or the U.S. Government. Let’s review.

The State of California is currently $30 billion upside down on its budget. But the dirty little secret is that it has over $500 billion in unfunded pensions, that a whole lot of public workers have no intention of walking away from. Add to that billions more in waste and mismanagement, exorbitant rents, bloated agencies and redundant bureaucracies and you just can see bankruptcy from your porch.

Unfortunately it’s ditto for the U.S. Government. If we sold ever square foot of Federal lands, leased every oil and gas reserve we have and allowed logging and mining on every productive site, we couldn’t get near the $100 plus trillion we have in unfunded mandates. For you folks in Entitlement America that means taking money from productive citizens and giving it to YOU! And when you are over a hundred trillion in debt with a $12 trillion GDP and less than $5 trillion in assets, you have redefined insolvency.

And to just illustrate how crazy it is becoming, since January, we are borrowing money from China and giving it to union pensions, union contractors, bankrupt States, Cities and Counties, and now foreign countries that have been overrun by socialist entitlement recipients demanding their dole. Recovery, under these circumstances, is about as likely as Michael Phelps winning another gold medal with an anvil tied to his foot.

Yessir, it is time to stop the locomotive and let some of us off. We’ve been predicting this train wreck and don’t want to see how it ends. We’ll just cling to our guns and bibles and let the Harvard graduates show the rest of us just how smart they are.

Meanwhile, wifey and I will go quietly on our way enjoying our beautiful valley, knowing that we are far better stewards of our finances than the 536 madmen in Washington or a cigar chomping ex-muscleman in Sacramento.