A Mother?s Advice Needed in D.C. (Commentary by Andrew Jensen)

If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.

The adage, so tried and true it’s usually prefaced by, “Didn’t your mother ever tell you,” is one that needs heeding in Washington, D.C.

Let’s start with Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, who testified before the Senate Banking Committee on Feb. 24.

Senator Mike Johanns, R-Neb., after reciting a list of recent Federal borrowing funded by foreign sources that goes “on and on and on,” asked Bernanke for the long term effects on future generations and looming retirees.

“Tell me how we deal with that?” Johanns asked.

Rather than answer a question notable for being at once the most vital and the least discussed during the debate over various economic rescue packages, Bernanke instead offered a “short story” of recent history.

In the last decade, Bernanke said, Americans grew wealthy either through 401(k) accounts or rising home prices.

“Over that period, as asset prices were rising, Americans saved less and borrowed more from abroad,” he said.

What’s in your wallet?

Raise your hand if there’s a credit card that reads Bank of China.

There’s no doubt many Americans irresponsibly leveraged themselves during the stock market and housing booms, but Mr. Chairman, the Senator did not ask you about Joe Blow’s eight cards with a $20,000 balance.

Not one American other than the 535 in Congress and one in the White House approved taking out hundreds of billions in more foreign debt to pay for stealthy pet project earmarks, no-strings defense contracts and, most recently, $200 million for economic drivers The Smithsonian and National Endowment for the Arts.

In Joe Blow’s world, that’s a lottery ticket.

In D.C., it’s called a “rounding error.”

Leaving aside that twisted difference in perspective to get back to Bernanke’s recount of history, the reason we need to saddle ourselves with an unsustainable debt load, he said, is because the consumer is now saving more and spending less, and the government needs to fill that gap.

Amazing.

Americans won’t spend the money willingly, so the government is going to take it from them. As comedian Chris Rock once said, “That’s not a payment, that’s a jack.”

Bernanke knocked down a straw man by saying that trying to balance the budget this year — which no one is suggesting — would have a negative effect and then sat back in his chair with a self-satisfied look about his non-answer answer.

I had to rewind it five times to make sure I heard him correctly.

Forget Bernanke hanging the economy and the national debt on the American consumer without even mentioning bloated government spending or questionable monetary policy by him and his predecessor, consider what he is proposing will do to our suddenly thrifty citizens.

Inflation makes saps out of savers, it’s said, and printing money out of thin air will punish everyone who’s tucking away something extra right now for this and the next rainy day. Not only will goods and services cost more when Americans are ready to spend again, but the cost of borrowing is going up, too.

And if you’re fortunate enough to come out of this current climate in a financially secure position, the government is going to punish you again.

Which brings us to President Obama.

Talking down the economy is a fine way to get elected, but it is a poor way to govern.

In my opinion the Candidate of Hope has become the President of Peril.

Obama pledged an end to the “politics of fear” throughout his campaign but had no qualms tossing out threats of “crisis” and “catastrophe” if the largest spending bill in American history wasn’t approved immediately with neither debate nor the transparency he also made a theme as a candidate.

Even Bill Clinton has told Obama to lighten up.

It does not help matters when the words “fiscal responsibility” finally reentered Obama’s vocabulary only to hear him redefine the concept as seizing the wealth of Americans who actually know the meaning of the words and practice it every day.

Now would probably be a good time to note how all this proves the only thing with a less visible bottom than the markets is the current government appetite for taking over the private sector.

But that wouldn’t be very nice.