We need to talk. As a nation we have spent on Covid relief as if money was perpetually flowing from an endless fountain. 

Employers cannot find workers because for some it is more profitable to draw government benefits. 

Don’t get angry at the person taking the benefits. The individual drawing the payments did the research and determined that it was worth the effort to apply for it and receive it if qualified.  

Large corporations and other organizations do the same thing. They spend  billions on attorneys, accountants, and lobbyists. Government programs are big business.  

I was honored to serve on the board of two state agencies that provided support for Georgians in desperate situations. Both had budgets exceeding a billion dollars.   

When we considered the annual budget, the staff presented charts, graphs, and spreadsheets. They told us how we could utilize state dollars leverage more federal dollars. 

They seemed to act as if federal money is magically different from state or local money. It is not.

Just like the money you owe on houses, cars, and credit cards, one day you have to pay it back. Any government expenditure, is real money. 

I looked out into the audience and over to my fellow Board members and explained what should be obvious. 

Whether it is filling a pothole on a neighborhood street, buying a new police car, building a school building, or looking at charts with numbers in the billions, government funding of anything is all real money. 

That money comes from you. In some form or fashion, you will ultimately pay.  

The city council or county commissioners do not give money. 

The state legislature does not give money.  

The federal government does not give money.  

A government program, no matter how small or how large, 
is funded by using the power of the government to take money from us, from our neighbors, and from our family members, to pay for the program. 

A community of people living together will tax themselves 
in order to provide for common services that individually cannot be practically met. Streets, police, fire, schools, are all examples that we understand.  

My point to my fellow board members was, as they examined these programs, to ask themselves if they would be willing to confiscate money from their families, neighbors, and people that they had to live with and see every day in order to pay for these programs.  

I got a few frowns and some chuckles when I shared that. I also got a few incredulous looks as if I didn’t know what I was talking about.  

The truth is that many years ago, our elected officials, especially at the federal level, stopped recognizing that the source of all government funding is ultimately from the people.  

They acted as if there was one type of money for the average person, and another for government. They are either terribly misinformed or lying through their teeth. 

Either way, the note is coming due and we cannot ignore it. 

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