It's time to kick spending habit

Congressional negotiators avoided a so-called government shutdown this week — two days before money was about to run out.

That is, of course, good news.

The bad news is that the shutdown was only averted for two weeks, and now House and Senate leaders are going to have to get down to the serious business of adding up revenue and expenses and come up with a realistic budget — something which they haven’t done in years.

We know the two-week extension included $4 billion in cuts, and that sounds impressive to the casual observer, but it is a drop in the bucket when compared to the $1.5 trillion deficit projected over the entire year.

There’s no doubt that entitlements such as Social Security are going to have to be flat on the table when the congressional cleaver starts to make cuts — and so are military spending, foreign aid, and every other component of the budget.

This isn’t about politics; it is about the nation’s future viability. If we have become overly dependent on government services that we can’t afford, that is not much different than a drug addict who burns up thousands of dollars in crack and meth each week and just becomes more addled and confused.

It’s time to kick the habit.

Sure it’s hard to level with yourself and admit that you have a problem, but that is the only way to begin recovery. And if the nation hasn’t bottomed out yet — if it takes a government shutdown to get people’s attention — then so be it.

No one should ever again assume they are entitled to anything — not until we have enough money to pay for what we are buying with our federal tax dollars.

In the meantime, if we pretend that there is some easy fix ahead, all we are buying is trouble.

IT’S ALWAYS good when a local comes out on top, and Flathead resident Brandon French did just that, time and again scaling mountain slopes on skis to win this year’s ski mountaineering U.S. championship in Jackson, Wyo.

The 30-year-old Kalispell firefighter bested 90 other competitors in the event, which involved climbing 7,700 feet in five different ascents that were followed by ski runs back down. Such a brutal and exhausting endeavor has to be admired.

And French has been competing in ski mountaineering events for only five years, with top 10 national championship finishes every year since. With his latest win, it appears he will continue to be a formidable competitor in years to come.