Sticking it to the Children

 Krayton Kerns
2.13.08

I caught a couple high school basketball games over the weekend.  This is my second season as an empty-nester so I am watching the game purely as a spectator.  Things look different from that perspective and it was half-time that caught my eye.

 

The Laurel High School Senior Celebration fund-raising committee has traditionally sponsored a great half-time hoop shooting contest.  For $1 dollar a shot, little kids can win a Mountain-Dew if they sink one from three point land.  With minutes left in the second quarter, youngsters crowd the courtside bleachers squirming and kicking off their shoes as they eagerly await the half.  The buzzer rings and the mini-players flood the court.

 

They are running, jumping, slipping, dribbling, and wrestling to be the first in line.  The tussle to get to the front leaves their shirttails hanging out and their hair ruffled.  But, firmly gripped in their sweaty free hand, is a crumpled dollar bill…their ticket to be a winner.  When you are six or seven, it doesn’t get any better than this.

 

Watching the electrifying event the irony struck me. “I know they are having a great time, but do we realize we are charging the little kids a dollar so the big kids can have a graduation party?  Wow, this is exactly what is happening in Washington D.C.”

 

I hope those kids remain this excited when they discover the democrat controlled Congress and President Bush just stuck them with a $168 billion dollar debt so their parents can have an economic-stimulus party.  This is the biggest bipartisan bait-and-switch of all time.

 

The Bush tax cuts have stimulated the economy to record levels.  Five years after the devastating blow of 9-11 our state and national treasuries were receiving record revenues.  Government was fat dumb and happy…and without restraint they spent it all.  We are broke.  To give you $168 billion dollars Uncle Sam will have to borrow it…from the little kids jumping up and down on the basketball floor.  They will get to work overtime so they can payback $168 billion…plus interest and taxes.  Unlike the Senior Celebration Shoot Out where parents knowingly pick up the entry fee, Mom and Dad will be long gone when the bill for this economic-stimulus party comes due.

 

This incremental creep towards socialist big government began in 1937 and exploded in the 60’s with President Johnson’s Great Society.  Someday there will be a fiscally responsible generation that stops this madness, but not today.  For now, the government sticking it to the children has surpassed baseball as our national past-time. 

 

Author’s Note: Don’t miss my point. The Senior Celebration is a great program.  I don’t do the half-time shoot because the little kids always beat me to the court.  I play 50/50 because my odds are better and I don’t have to take off my shoes to play.