Some one smarter than me said, “Good hearts with wrong priorities often make bad decisions.”
The financial condition of our federal government is in serious trouble. We have nearly maxed out our federal credit card. As many citizens have learned, that results in higher interest rates at best and a loss of credit at worst. Since about two-thirds of our debt is entitlements, it would seem that most of our debt problems started with benevolent, good-hearted motives.
The good news is that our leaders seem to realize that if our country goes bankrupt our lives are going to be affected in ways we can only imagine. There seems to be a bipartisan agreement that it needs to be fixed.
I worry that “good hearts” in Cook County are not prioritizing our needs from our wants. In a desire to provide a better life, we are looking at spending millions on new recreational programs while such needs as our hospital/ care center, and other entities to which we are already committed, are in jeopardy.
Although our legislature has authorized bonding up to $20 million of the 1 percent sales and use tax, we live in precarious financial times and no one can say with certainty that these funds will be available to retire these debt commitments. And then, thinking in the long term, how about the maintenance and operational cost of these facilities beyond this funding period?
Billy Graham has said, “There may not be a hell, but what if there is?”
Our spending appetite may not create a financial problem, but what if it does?
I just might be an old guy with old-fashioned ideas about only buying what you know you can pay for and putting needs before wants.
Chuck Soderholm
Grand Marais
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