I recently received a letter from my Congressman, Doug Lamborn – R-CO. He opens by stating that he is concerned with the direction our country is going in, like me.  And then he outlines his solution to the ‘fix’ the direction, said ‘fix’ being the direction I am concerned is the wrong way.

What I find most objectionable is his comparison of the Federal Budget with a household budget. Take away eight  ‘0’s at the end of the federal budget and you have an easily understood household budget.   I object to any comparison of a governmental budget to a household budget. The two are not the same and glibly waving your hands over the numbers is not going to make it true. I would also like to suggest that if you insist upon using a household budget analogy, cutting spending is not the only way to reduce accumulating debt. Go out and get a job.  Increasing revenue is a much better and more efficient method of reducing new debt and in addition to some spending cuts it may even work to reduce the overall debt over time.  (And one of the last things you need to spend money on is on a new high-tech, state-of-the-art security system for your home when you are drowning in debt.)

And while I am thinking about it, not only are governments not budgeted and managed like households, they aren’t budgeted and managed like businesses or corporations. An efficient government is not a desired end result, an effective government is. Businesses have different goals and objectives and they need to satisfy different parties to reach those goals.

I think it is fair to say that the Congressman and I do not see things the same way.

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