Would you hire a nutritionist who is addicted to potato chips and donuts?
That would be as misguided as thinking that a government that is so deep in debt that it spent $12 million on a pickleball complex in Vegas can reform itself.
The United States is broke. We are worse than broke.
At this writing, the national debt is well over $36 trillion and growing by the second. We need to pay that much just to get to broke.
That seems urgent. So what was done about it?
As Sen. Rand Paul exposed in his annual report about federal spending the federal government wasted -- among other things -- $10 billion to maintain empty federal buildings and storage facilities, $700 million on a loan to a failed trucking company, and over $108,000 on a non-functioning hotel.
All the while, we watch helplessly as complicated Continuing Resolutions are passed by Congress and signed by presidents of both parties. Budget fights seem to be about whether we will go over the cliff fast or really super fast.
Spending -- like the $15.5 billion that the Department of Energy wasted in an effort to convince Americans to purchase electric vehicles -- is often tucked into bills that make War and Peace light reading.
These gigantic bills are often patched together by unelected staffers and money-no-object lobbying operations. They are most certainly not a function of representative government, but definitely a sign of its demise.
The late John Conyers, who was a member of the House of Representatives for 47 years -- once said:
"I love these members, they get up and say 'Read the bill.' What good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages and you don't have two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?'"
Debt ceilings are raised and the phrase is a neat example of the insanity of Washington: How many times have you raised the ceiling of your house?
Such reckless spending leads to the inflation that has us cursing silently -- or loudly -- at the gas pump, or at the milk and egg coolers in the grocery. It makes us choose between a mortgage payment and adding more to the college fund -- perhaps your college fund.
Does all of this make you want to take a hot shower to forget our troubles? Well, the Biden administration's Department of Energy published rules earlier this week that ban the sale of certain kinds of natural gas-powered water heaters, and decree that "new tankless water heaters must rely on 13% less energy than the least efficient comparable model on the markets today."
Tough luck.
While previous generations of Americans sacrificed for those not yet born, today's federal government is punishing our children and grandchildren. They will be on the hook for all of it.
We are robbing untold numbers of generations to fund waste and sloth.
What President Ronald Reagan said in 1981 is true today:
"Millions of Americans today have had to tighten their belts because of the economic conditions, and it's time to put Washington on a diet, too. Gaining control of the size of government, getting our economy back on track, will not wait."
We cannot rely upon Congress, a particular administration, or federal agency to set the conditions of fiscal renewal and reform. The federal government will not do it.
An Article V convention will certainly discuss and propose an amendment or amendments that place strict restraints upon the federal government's power to tax and spend -- a necessary diet of simplicity and basic economic sense. A convention will propose solutions to undo the mess made by people who don't have to face the consequences.
As of now, only 15 more states need to pass our COS resolution to call an Article V convention. This can be done and must be done immediately.
We and our representatives in state capitols were given a responsibility by the Founders and those who sacrificed everything to perform the function envisioned for us -- to stand up when the federal government is out of control and curb its appetite.
Join the fight by signing the petition below and volunteering to advance the call for an Article V convention so that your children and grandchildren can enjoy the economic benefits of a government that is held to a standard of balance and restraint that is required of each of us.
