fiscally unsound

When you discover that your spending is outpacing your earnings, what do you do? Do you demand a pay increase from your employer? Probably not. Most likely, you take a look at your spending and figure out what you can cut out. Sometimes it is easy stuff to cut; other times it make life a bit uncomfortable. But you do what you have to do in order to live within your means. Why can't our government leaders work the same way? They spend and spend and when they realize the money has run out they come to us asking/demanding more. If the government was a business, it would be shut down almost immediately due to mismanagement. It is so much easier to spend someone else's money than your own--think of a time when you've had dinner paid for by your company credit card. Instead of ordering the $12 salad you instead order the $30 steak. Easier to make those choices when it isn't coming out of your pocket. It doesn't help that there is almost no accountability to make good decisions with our money--I feel like we are viewed as a bottomless pit of money. Imagine if you could allocate your taxes much like you can do when donating to a charity. It would be so clear what is important to the people and where the bulk of spending should go. Or imagine if there was some sort of bonus for coming in under budget--how much smarter would our money be handled?