PICK ONE!

There is an old saying that you can't have it both ways. Maybe it's a new saying, or maybe it is just a plain fact.

Well, you can have it both ways, for a while. But ultimately, you have to pick one.

Here is our country's fundamental problem right now. Our elected officials are toddlers at an all-you-can-eat dessert table. The phrase "I want..." followed by foot stomping gets more workout in DC than at a Toys R Us at Christmas.

We want more and more. We want to pay less and less. 

The Republican Budget just passed shows this, but they are not alone. The Democratic budgets (at least since Clinton*) do the same thing.

Our place in the world has allowed this for a long, long time. Our new budget throws an extra few hundred billion dollars more at the military and gives $4.5 trillion in tax cuts to everyone, with a supersize side to the richest of our rich.

This has worked because we were super lucky. The US runs the world's economic system. People use dollars everywhere, which means we can sell them off as safe investments to finance larger and larger bills. But that only works if you follow some rules. You can spend more than you have if it seems reasonable to the people financing the debt. 

But we are not being reasonable. We are spending so much more than we can afford now - that the bank is getting nervous. And yet, we blithely go on, pretending that no one can force us to pay for anything.

We want more. Got it!

We don't want to pay. Okay!

It keeps the people quiet and the government trough bigger. 

We keep kicking the metaphorical can down the road. We keep spending too much and not saving enough, which makes the problem bigger—for someone else after they are gone.

* The only budget surpluses in 70 years have been under Clinton.