Congress Is Spending Money We Do Not Have
By John J. Duncan Jr.
One of the most popular things a member of Congress can do is bash Congress, saying or implying that it is filled with bad or crooked, or even evil people. Yet, this is not only very false, it is somewhat arrogant.
It is saying, “Look at me – everyone else here is bad, but I’m good.” Down deep inside, I believe any member who does this knows it is a lie or is a little bit delusional.
It reminds me of a joke my Dad told me many years ago. A minister was asked to give the eulogy at the funeral of a very bad man. He racked his brain trying to think of something good to say about the deceased. Finally, just before he got up to speak, he thought of something. He said, “Well, we all know that Bill was a liar, a cheat, and a thief, but compared to his two brothers, he was an angel.”
I had the privilege of spending slightly over 30 years in the U.S. House. I considered it an honor, and I am still very grateful to the people of East Tennessee for allowing me to do so.
I disagreed with most of what the Congress did during those years, yet I always felt I was serving with probably the finest group of 535 people you could have found in this country, on both sides of the aisle.
Sure, there were a few bad apples as there would be in any group this large, but there were very few. Almost all – Democrat and Republican – were honest, hard-working people who were sincerely trying to help their constituents.
The Democrats controlled the House for 16 of my 30 years there. I felt I needed to get along with them if I wanted to get things for my district and get problems solved for the people I represented.
I had one of the most consistently conservative voting records in the House, and I did not hesitate to speak out, both in my committees and on the floor. But I never attacked or criticized any other member personally.
I know this disappointed some. One caller said I needed to forget being a judge, as I was before going to Congress. But I think I got a lot more done by trying to be fair and kind, even to those on the other side, than I ever would have gotten done if I had always been on the attack.
My parents were the kindest people I have ever known, and they were always trying to help others. They taught me and my brother and sisters many things, but two of the most important things were to always work very hard and to never spend money we didn’t have. I always thought it would be better to sleep on the floor than to sleep on a bed that’s not paid for.
Now we are headed very fast toward a cashless society. I think this is very bad. Millions are going deeper and deeper into debt, buying things they really don’t need. Those little credit cards make it way too easy to spend, and people would be much less likely to spend so fast if they were having to pull out cash to do it.
This is why I said above that I disagreed with most of what Congress did while I was in office. I watched the Congress every day spending whopping amounts of money – billions and billions – that we did not have. I have said many times that the easiest thing in the world to do is to spend other people’s money.
When I was first elected, the national debt was three trillion dollars. I thought that was terrible. Yet, today it is over $36 trillion, and headed upward faster than ever. No one can humanly comprehend even one trillion dollars.
A few months ago, President Trump said we should cut defense spending in half, but a few days ago, he pushed hard to pass a bill that added $150 billion to defense spending, raising it to one trillion dollars a year.
One of the biggest boondoggles in recent years was the Camp Lejeune Act, which should have been called the ‘Billions for Lawyers Act.’ This bill was passed because someone got a quack scientist to say the water at that camp was dirty from the ‘50s to the ‘80s and may have caused cancer or other illnesses, and they knew very few in Congress would vote against any bill that has the word ‘veterans’ attached to it.
I am a veteran, and I respect anyone who served honorably. But 95% of those who served, while proud of their service, will admit they were not heroes. We use that word lightly sometimes.
Members of Congress are afraid someone will say they are unpatriotic if they don’t vote for defense or veterans. However, we have reached the point that it is very unpatriotic to keep spending money we do not have. If we don’t cut our spending on defense and veterans and everything else, inflation will get so bad, our veteran and social security pensions will buy very little. This year, we will spend a mind-boggling one trillion dollars just to pay the interest on our national debt.
