{"id":1318046,"date":"2020-02-03T20:04:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T03:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/purcell-column-the-d-c-disorder-thats-sadder-than-sad\/"},"modified":"2020-02-03T20:04:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T03:04:00","slug":"purcell-column-the-d-c-disorder-thats-sadder-than-sad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/purcell-column-the-d-c-disorder-thats-sadder-than-sad\/","title":{"rendered":"Purcell column: The D.C. disorder that\u2019s sadder than SAD"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Maybe Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is bringing me down \u2014 or not.<\/p>\n

Overcast winter weather triggers SAD. Lack of exposure to sunlight can cause higher levels of melatonin and lower levels of serotonin in the brain, which can cause depression-like symptoms.<\/p>\n

But then again, maybe it\u2019s the news \u2014 and not SAD \u2014 that\u2019s triggering my listlessness.<\/p>\n

According to The Washington Post, the latest Congressional Budget Office estimates show the federal deficit \u201creached $1 trillion in 2019, for the first time since the Great Recession, and, under current law will average $1.3 trillion through 2030.\u201d<\/p>\n

It gets worse: \u201cFederal debt held by the public will grow from 81 percent of gross domestic product to a post-1946 record of 98 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Didn\u2019t Republicans used to care about this spending stuff? Didn\u2019t President Trump, as candidate Trump, promise to end the deficit in eight years?<\/p>\n

This gets me so down, all I want to do is curl up in a blanket and sip hot toddies by a roaring fireplace.<\/p>\n

Regardless of who\u2019s president, Democrat or Republican, America has been on a serious spending spree.<\/p>\n

Consider: When George W. Bush assumed office, the national debt was $5.7 trillion. He nearly doubled it in eight years to about $11 trillion.<\/p>\n

President Obama added nearly $9 trillion to our debt load during his eight years in office.<\/p>\n

President Trump is on track to add another $5 trillion to our debt during his first term.<\/p>\n

Sure, I get it \u2014 partly. Entitlement-program spending continues to grow faster than revenue.<\/p>\n

Some blame Republican tax cuts for reducing revenue, though overall tax receipts have increased and are higher than ever.<\/p>\n

Spending is higher, too.<\/p>\n

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, tells The Hill that more than half of the deficit\u2019s increase lately results from new laws that increase debt forecasts.<\/p>\n

All I know is that the debt has jumped from $5.7 trillion in 2000 to more than $22 trillion in only 20 years \u2014 which makes me want to escape with a big plate of comfort food, digging into hot meatloaf and mashed potatoes smothered in gravy.<\/p>\n

To put the magnitude of federal spending, deficit and debt into perspective, think of a typical family budget.<\/p>\n

Say Mom and Dad earn $36,500 this year. That\u2019s not a lot because, as food and housing costs keep going up, mom and dad will spend $47,500 this year to meet their obligations.<\/p>\n

To address this year\u2019s $11,000 shortfall, they borrow. Repaying that $11,000 on their small income will be awfully hard. But their situation is far worse than just this year\u2019s shortfall.<\/p>\n

Their greater challenge is that they\u2019ve already borrowed $220,000 in prior years \u2014 and they keep piling on more debt every day.<\/p>\n

How long such a borrowing charade can go on is anyone\u2019s guess. But common sense says the whole thing will come crashing down sooner or later.<\/p>\n

This makes me want to take a long winter nap, hoping I\u2019ll awaken to find that it was all just a bad dream.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not a dream \u2014 and SAD is not causing my sadness.<\/p>\n

No, it\u2019s ESD \u2014 Excessive Spending Disorder \u2014 that\u2019s getting me down. And too few Americans seem to care that it is afflicting our politicians in Washington so heavily.<\/p>\n

Which makes me even sadder.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2020 Tom Purcell. Tom Purcell, author of \u201cMisadventures of a 1970\u2019s Childhood,\u201d a humorous memoir available at amazon.com, is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist and is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons Inc. For info on using this column in your publication or website, contact Sales@cagle.com<\/a> or call (805) 969-2829. Send comments to Tom at Tom@TomPurcell.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maybe Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is bringing me down \u2014 or not. Overcast winter weather triggers SAD. Lack of exposure to sunlight can cause higher levels of melatonin and lower levels of serotonin in the brain, which can cause depression-like symptoms. But then again, maybe it\u2019s the news \u2014 and not SAD \u2014 that\u2019s triggering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1318046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 01:54:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1318046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318046\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1318046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1318046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1318046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}