Something is wrong here.

Over the past eight years or so, we have had (and are having) some difficult economic times. And over the past eight years, at least two times now I have heard our President on TV say something about the importance of "going out and spending money." It usually was said before I was able to get to the remote and change the channel. We've had a couple rounds of "stimulus checks" letting people have "more of their own money" back. And we've had a couple rounds of tax reductions.

Now, I'm all for low taxes in principle. Who isn't, right? But it seems to me that if times are hard we should be frugal. We should save. Buy only necessities. This is logic. This makes sense. This is right.

At the same time, I have read about the Great Depression and the fact that deflation was a problem, apparently. If people aren't spending, the economy slows down and that is bad.

But the fact that in the past 15 years, our total outstanding debt has TRIPLED is also not good.

Go out and spend your stimulus checks! Don't spend it to pay down debt. Go out and spend to keep the economy going!

Something smells bushy here and my stomach is hurting.

J