When will the madness stop?

A few years ago, the U.S. government gave $20 million to Pakistan for their own version of Sesame Street. They also paid for body piercings with jewelry for hundreds of people living illegally in the U.S. I know this as fact as part of my job. Now I read that there will be a conservation fund set up for gophers in Thurston County.

Few people will read this letter or care what it says. Some will say these are mostly federal dollars, and those don’t count, so it’s free. Some will say that these programs are vital, and that the funding of them should be increased. Some will say raise taxes on the rich, they will pay for them.

But some will ask, when will the madness stop? With our country’s debt of $19 trillion, and future obligations of $200 trillion, do we really want to fund Pakistan Sesame Street, free body piercings with jewelry for anyone, and now child support for rodents?

For those that want to know when the madness will stop, a former Federal Reserve governor of St. Louis said a few years ago, “we are no different than Greece, we are just a few years behind them.” The biggest difference is that Greece gets bailouts from the European Union. The entire world economy is not large enough to bail out the U.S.

This madness will stop, and when it does, it will not be pretty. I am anxious to see who will be blamed.

This story was originally published March 2, 2016 at 1:16 PM with the headline "When will the madness stop?."