The curse of interesting times

The Chinese have it right. "May you live in interesting times" is a curse.

Last week, we were transfixed by the titanic budget battle between Leviathan Government and the Tea Party. The showdown at the OK corral. The throw-down at the WWE. After much agony and maybe a little ecstasy, Congress cut billions of dollars (the "biggest budget cut in history") from the federal budget for 2011.

During the same week, the federal government's deficit spending – for that week alone – exceeded the amount of the "historic" cut in the annual deficit.

Even with the "historic" cut, more than $1,600 billion will be added to America's debt by Sept. 30, to be paid back by money not yet made by Americans not yet born. Talk about taxation without representation.

The debate over the 2011 budget yielded other "interesting" insights.

To the Democrats, cuts of even one borrowed penny in any of their beloved government programs are "draconian" and "extreme" and intended to "kill women." To Republicans, the mere thought of sending "non-essential" federal workers home for a single day caused them to faint from the vapors.

So both sides labored mightily and delivered the mouse. They compromised, declared victory, patted each other on the back and will go home for a couple of weeks to recover from all this hard work before getting back to the fun of spending money they don't have and nobody else has, either.

During this "interesting" last week, the president panicked. When the Republican House passed a bill that would fund the military for the rest of the year, defund Planned Parenthood now and give the rest of the federal spending machine just a one week extension, Obama threatened a veto if that bill passed the Senate.

The Republicans in Congress have the budgetary "nuclear" option at their disposal! Let them know you expect them to use it by sending a message to all 241 GOP House members via the "No More Red Ink" campaign

Lap dog Sen. Harry Reid got the hint and wouldn't even allow a vote on the House bill in the Senate, continuing a Democrat-controlled Senate tradition of never voting on a budget, just on spending. Hey, if there are still checks in the checkbook ...

But the real revelation was in the president's veto-threat message. Obama was really, really steamed about cutting federal aid to Planned Parenthood, the outfit that kills over 330,000 unborn children a year, nearly 40 percent of them black.

So upset was Obama that he threatened to stop pay for the military if Planned Parenthood cuts remained in the bill. "Nonprofit" PP contributed $1 million to Obama's 2008 campaign and is a core member of the coalition of the left. And now we know that PP is more important to this president than the men and women putting their lives on the line in two wars and one kinetic military action.

Speaking of wars and rumors of wars, last week's fixation on the federal budget protected us from facing other unpleasantness – like Gadhafi winning in Libya, the Taliban surging in Afghanistan with aid from our "ally" Pakistan, the Muslim Brotherhood taking over Egypt and the Russians activating a nuclear power plant in Iran capable of producing plutonium for an Iranian A-bomb. Mere bagatelles, I know.

And while we're talking nuclear, so far, not one Japanese has died from the Fukushima nuclear power plant "disaster." Tens of thousands died from the earthquakes and the tsunami. But the American media continue to devote most of the coverage to the nuclear power plant. Little do they know that we know that their anti-nuke bias is the real news.

Here's what's really "interesting" about last week. While the politicians were convulsed trying to bail a bucket of spending from the tsunami of debt, Americans had a wary eye on the economy. Consumer confidence plunged last week along with the dollar, while gold and silver surged.

Gas prices continued to climb; food prices continued to climb, and food packages got smaller. Even the Obama regime admitted that average wages during the "Obama Recovery" are flat as prices skyrocket.

In Washington, D.C., last week, for three days of "Hold Their Feet to the Fire" broadcasts, I was amazed at the number of For Lease signs displayed, including in the windows of an entire four-story half-block-long empty modern office building within walking distance of the Capitol. This in the only metropolitan area in the country where real estate prices have gone up in the last quarter. Prices for everything were noticeably higher than last year's visit to our nation's capital.

As interesting as last week was, even more interesting and cursed times lie ahead.

Congress has limited federal government debt at $14.25 trillion, an unimaginable mountain of debt which Timmy Geithner estimates will be exceeded in May. Without congressional approval, the federal beast will not be able to borrow any more money.

The curse is there's actually a debate about this. Wisdom would dictate we stop borrowing and start living within our means. Politics dictates that politicians start convincing us that they must borrow more but promise to spend less at the same time. Experience predicts that delusional politics will win.

Fasten your seat belts. The curse of interesting times is just getting started.