The Debt Crisis.

The current debt crisis in Washington isn't new to most of us.

I have a "debt crisis" almost every month, when I end up with more month than money.

Someone once said credit works like this:  You buy things you don't need with money you don't have to impress people you don't like.  Sounds like Congress to me.

Here's how my job works:  Sell a car, get a check.  Don't sell a car, get nothing.

Pretty simple.  Just like the situation in Washington (that's simple, I said, not necessarily easy).

If I don't have enough money to pay my bills, I make the difficult decision to feed my family (including myself), pay the power bill and the rent rather than pay somebody I owe for something expendable.  These other folks will get paid.  I just may not know when. 

You may think ill of me for doing this, and that's okay.  Most self-righteous people do.

Let's just say I have an OUTSTANDING year selling cars.  And I make exactly $174,400.  I will be in the 28% tax bracket.  If I make $174,401 I will be in the 33% tax bracket.

Now, I may be from the hills, but I think at any point in the above scenario I would have paid MY FAIR SHARE of taxes (which, by the way, I'm tired of hearing about, right along with words like BALANCED APPROACH and COMPROMISE).  And paid for my own health insurance (unlike Congress). 

Know how much your Congressman makes a year?  $174,000.  That's right, $401 shy of the 33% tax bracket.  Wonder who decided what their salaries would be...oh, yeah...THEY DID.

The President said recently that folks who had $100,000 laying around that they didn't need (I'm paraphrasing here) should contribute their "fair share" in taxes so we can pay for necessary items like the Bridge to Nowhere, how to purchase Worcestershire sauce, the National Brewery Museum, and sech.

First of all, how would I know if I didn't "need" that extra $100k?  Never know when a yachting emergency may arise.

And, B, if I made $174,401 (or more), I feel like I'd been punished for doing well.  Like the line in that Travis Tritt song, "They're billing me for killing me".

Daddy used to say "If they were going to screw me I wished they'da kissed me first."

I have to live within my means, whatever they may be at the time.  I don't have the option of a bailout, raising my debt ceiling, or borrowing from my master China.  I just have to make do.

Now, I'm not complaining about my station in life.  I just don't understand why the folks we elected to do their job won't...do their job.

Seems like they're all constantly running for re-election.  Because they are.

We need some people with backbone in Washington who are willing to make some hard decisions and live with the fallout.  Not a bunch of wimpy back-slapping politicians who are scared to death of giving a direct answer.

November 2012 isn't far away.  I hope we make it that long.