John Block Reports from Washington

Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by the Renewable Fuels Association, 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—

There’s good new and bad news. Bad news first. On Monday, the Super Committee failed to cut our debt by 1.2 trillion dollars. I don’t think it was a big surprise. If Republicans refuse to raise taxes and the Democrats refuse to cut spending, you’re not going to get anything done. In my judgment, we spend too much – way too much. Everybody has their hand out. I do believe that the Tax Code needs to be simplified and loop holes closed.

Europe is ahead of us, although not very far. They have five countries that have maxed out their credit card. If you think the public is angry here in the U.S., take a look at Europe.

The voters over there threw the ruling party out in Ireland, and Greece, and Portugal, and Italy and just this week, the Socialists running Spain were kicked out. Could we be next in line for a political blood bath? We have an election next year. Let’s see what happens. You can live beyond your means only so long because at some point no one will loan you any more money. That’s where we’re headed.

Now you have heard an update on the bad news. Here is the good news.

We celebrated Thanksgiving this week. Even with 9 percent unemployment and political turmoil, we have a lot to be thankful for. Take the turkey out of the oven. Serve up the sweet potatoes and save enough room for the pumpkin pie. All you have to do is think about the starving suffering in Africa and realize that we have it pretty good here.

I was at a dinner this week with Raj Shah. He heads our U.S. Agency for International Development. The countries that he works with suffer misery that we cannot imagine. The discussion at that dinner more than anything makes me appreciate the good life that we have. I didn’t say perfect. But still good.

My mind looks back to when I was a little boy. We raised turkeys then, and chicken, and milk cows, and beef cows, and pigs, and horses. But on Thanksgiving, my grandfather would clean and dress our own turkey for my mother to cook. And so my parents and sisters would come together with my aunt and uncle and their kids for Thanksgiving dinner. My father would pray over that turkey and thank God for all of our blessings.

God bless all of you out there.

In closing, I would encourage you to access my website which archives my radio commentaries dating back 10 years and will go back 20 years when complete. Check on what I said back then. Go to www.johnblockreports.com.

Until next week, I am John Block in Washington.