Viceroys and vassals

The first of the month is right around the corner, and that means one thing in this house. Bills. Mortgage bills, tuition bills, car and phone and electric and estimated tax bills. Reassessing for the umpteenth time this year whether we really need to remodel the basement right now, or if we should look ahead to those December orthodontist and heating costs. You know what I mean - it's no different out there for most of us.

Just gotta do what we can with what we've got...

Which is why I'm consistently agitated these days (well, OK, for the last five years) by the financial hijinks of the majority Party in Washington. I can't help but feel that momentum is building within the Republican mind for a final "land rush" of sorts, a "let's grab as much as we can and pass it along to all our friends while we have the chance" dynamic that's partly fueled, ironically, by the realization that those poll numbers really are headed south, and time's a-runnin' short.

Despite the withering criticism hurled at our "ruling class" over the past month, this Administration (and its chums and cronies) are apparently getting back to business as usual with renewed fervor. The same questionable awarding of contracts. The same deplorable fiscal plans. Even Mike Brown is still on FEMA's payroll, as a consultant on the Katrina response! And not a plan in sight to trim a little pork or roll back some of those subsidies for the struggling souls of Beverly Hills.

Money obviously talks with this crowd. But it's our money, dammit, that's paying the ever-mounting tab, and I, for one, am tired of throwing so much into the hands of such unreliable and irresponsible shoppers. I've already got that problem at home (in the guise of a thirteen-year-old daughter), and the ATM she believes lives in my wallet is now closed for maintenance! Do I have to treat my government like an eighth-grade girl? Is it time for all of us to cut off Uncle Sam's allowance?

Unfortunately, I think that might be a big "Yes."

Examples are set at the top, and if our government wants its citizens to act each day with fiscal responsibility (or suffer the severe consequences meted out by its own agencies), then it has a basic responsibility to do the same. If it demands that each of us function solely within our finite means, then it has an obligation to demonstrate similar restraint. If our leaders insist that we sacrifice our pet projects when those "luxuries" threaten the size of the evening meal, then they damn well better close the national cookie jar.

In both legislative and personal examples galore, we are witnessing a return to the age of viceroys and vassals; a time of separate ethics for the rich and the not-so-rich; a blatant, in-your-face, flip-the-bird double standard of behavior that is so arrogant, so insulting, so dangerous it leaves me sputtering with disbelief.

Best not sputter too long, though. I've got to get back to work - so I can manage to pay that gas bill on time.