John Block Reports from Washington

Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by Monsanto, and John Deere. They are all friends, supporters, and allies of a healthy farm economy and prosperous rural America. Thank you.

And now for today’s commentary—

Congratulations to our government officials. They appropriated the money to fund our government until the fiscal year ends next October. Now we can all take a big sigh of relief.

I’m glad they did it. We don’t want to shut the government down. But, here is what is happening. Once again, for another year, we will spend more money than we take in. Families can’t do this for very long. They go broke. Farms can’t do this. They go broke.

Would you like to take a look at the financial road we are on? In 1980, the U.S. government debt was 2 trillion dollars. Now, 30 years and 5 presidents later, our debt exceeds 18 trillion – nine times what it was in 1980. In the last 40 years, we have been in the red every year except 4.

Unless we get on top of this, some day, “the chickens will come home to roost.” Our children and grandchildren will pay the price.

As bad as we are, we are better than many other countries. Look at Argentina – they aren’t paying their debt. Russia defaulted on their debt some years ago. Now, with the collapse in oil prices, they are in deep trouble again. Greece and Spain and Italy are struggling.

If we want to stand out as a responsible world leader, we can’t keep putting off tough decisions. I hope this new Congress, the President, and our next President will stand up and show some courage.

The countries in the world that are creating jobs and experiencing economic growth are the ones that have stepped up and cut spending. Mr. George Osborne, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer, has a lot of wise advice. Here is what he has to say. “The U.K. has been growing faster than any other major economy since 2010. We set out a clear deficit reduction plan. Far from returning Britain to recession as my critics warned, we have experienced a 27% increase in business investment. We reduced our top rates of income tax and cut our corporate tax rate to 20%.”

Turn to the U.S. and as universally criticized as our budget sequestration process has been, it has provided the discipline to control our spending. Our economy is doing very well.

Mr. Osborne sums it up. “The lesson is clear: You can’t build a better future on a mountain of debt.”

That’s it for this week. If you would like to review my radio shows going back more than 20 years, just go on-line to www.johnblockreports.com. Have a great weekend. Until next week, I am John Block in Washington, D.C.