Tea baggers love to compare government spending to their family budget. But they haven’t thought that all the way through. Follow me below the fold.
OK, tea party family. You’re in a bad time. Your income is down. You’ve made some foolish purchases on your credit card. But you have a rich relative who believes in you. They believe you’ll make more money again and they’re willing to loan you a lot of money at very low interest. They think you’re good for it. You made a lot of money in the past and can do it again in the future.
If you borrow from this rich relative, you can pay all of your bills. You can keep working hard and find ways to make more money like you did before. Then you can pay them back like you’ve done before.
But wait! You refuse to borrow from this relative. Even though the interest is extremely low.
So instead you figure out how to get by without that loan. Hmmm. For every $1 of bills to pay, you have 60 cents.
If you pay for your mortgage, you can’t pay for your car, your health insurance or your medications and you'll have to dine on ramen noodles for life. If you skip your mortgage you can probably manage everything else, but then of course, you’ll lose your house, be out on the street and have no money for rent.
But if you skip your car and health insurance payments, you may lose your job because there’s no reliable transportation—and what if you get sick?
Then there’s your kids. They rack up a lot of expenses what with food, clothes, school supplies and all. And damn, they even want some toys and activities. That really adds up. But no, can’t chuck them.
Gee. When you get down to it, the low interest loan from Uncle MoneyBags is looking more attractive.
Hmm. You have a much better chance of balancing your budget in the future if you take this loan now.
Lesson for the Tea Party.