“Enough is enough.” We say that when we’ve had too much.
When do we reach enough government spending?
One way to figure this out would be to determine what is the real public interest and spend enough to cover that, and no more.
Take defense. A good diplomatic policy, backed by adequate military might, serves us all. We can argue what that good policy is, but we certainly don’t want more spending than required to serve said policy.
And yet, a much-ballyhooed current defense spending measure is laden with line-item spending projects that the Pentagon didn’t ask for.
President Obama, when he was a candidate, promised to crack down on such spending. It’s usually called “pork.” Unfortunately, politicians like pork.
A fascinating post on the USA Today website explains how our prez signed “a pork-laden spending bill left over from the previous year but vowed to be more vigilant going forward. Now, his administration is lauding a $636 billion defense spending bill, for the fiscal year that began Thursday, that includes $2.7 billion in earmarks” — including funding for destroyers and cargo planes the Pentagon didn’t ask for.
Such spending doesn’t serve us all. It serves a few, back home in some districts. And it helps re-elect their representatives.
All at our expense.
By definition, it’s more than enough. It’s too much.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.