Go ahead, living on pie and whiskey won't hurt you. . . .

Sen. John Barrasso@SenJohnBarrasso

Democrats’ runaway spending continues to fuel today’s high prices. 

@POTUS & Democrats refuse to cut spending even though the nation has blown past its limit. Families are worn out by Washington Democrats’ nonstop spending & worried about making ends meet.

barrasso.senate.gov

Barrasso: Democrats Refuse to Cut Spending Even Though the Nation Has Blown Past Its Limit

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, today issued the following statement after the April 2023 Consumer Price Index (CPI) revealed...

10:23 AM · May 10, 2023

A few observations. 

1.  The U.S. didn't have a budget deficit in 1835.

1835. That's it.

It had built up debt to pay down, but it didn't have a budget deficit, for that one year only.

This means "the Democrats did it" is devoid of historical accuracy.

2.  The recent massive public debt really began to ramp up during Gulf War II, which we fought on borrowed money.

The President who started that was a Republican. The President who finished it was a Democrat.

So again, "the Democrats did it" is, well, not really true.

3. The huge recent ramp up started during Donald Trump's administration, and continued on in the current one.

This got rolling in part due to COVID, but during the Trump Administration there was no loyalty to the "no debt" line of the GOP whatsoever.  

John Barrasso was there the entire time.

Joe Biden's early spending plans would have made it much worse, but Congress did partially reign that in.

By the way, we ramped up a huge one during the Cold War too, and the government basically inflated its way out of it.  I can't say that was intentional, but that is what occurred.

4.  Spending cuts?

Yes, they are needed, but cut all the non-discretionary spending but for defense to the bone, or just flat out, out, and this isn't actually fixed.

We are in a time of peril, but some of our defense spending remains stupid. We just launched, for example, a littoral combat ship of a class we're getting rid of.

At any rate, to really address spending, you need to touch entitlements, or raise taxes, or both.  Any politician who has examined this must know this, or be willfully blind to it.

5. Fuel prices?

In case nobody has noticed, one of the globes largest petroleum producers has attacked one of the world's largest grain producers.

Wars have impacts like huge boulder thrown in small ponds.  The Russo Ukrainian War has resulted in a massive disruption of Russian petroleum on the market and Ukrainian grain on the market.

Massive.

And every day, a massive amount of fuel is consumed in the war.

D'uh.

There should really be consequences for telling what amounts to half-truths, let alone untruths, to the public. But that would depend on the public being willing to listen to what it does not wish to hear.  In Wyoming, we wish to hear that 1) we can have high prices at the wellhead, and 2) high wages in extractive industries; and 3) free fuel at the pump.  Nobody wants to hear that we can't have those three. And no politician is really willing to admit it.

So, we suffer the consequences of our unwillingness not to hear that we can't have pie and whiskey for dinner, and be just fine.

But it will.

It'll kill you.