If only Uncle Sam managed finances the way you do.

As seen in The Oakland Press

April 19th, 2026

If only Uncle Sam managed finances the way you do.

by Ken Morris

Traveling during these turbulent times requires a lot of patience and planning ahead. I’m fortunate that my wife handles all our travel details. But even well-planned travel has its challenges. At airports you often see stressed out people sprinting to their connections. The public understands why airports have an abundance of security, but our elected officials have turned a stressful, yet tolerable experience into a nightmare.

The problem is that our elected officials have chosen not to pay our nation’s TSA workers. They expect them to work without a paycheck. Travelers going through security don’t know if it will be a 10-minute process or a 2-hour ordeal. This is totally unacceptable and it illustrates how dysfunctional our elected officials are. No wonder people have so little confidence in politicians. It’s a sad commentary that not paying TSA workers is all about politics.

I’m currently traveling, and with my unanticipated spare time in the airport lounge, I decided to do a little research on our nation’s finances. While on my trip, our national debt surpassed $39 trillion. That’s a 39 with twelve zeroes. It’s up from $38 trillion just last October. Here’s another way to look at it. Every individual in the country is carrying a $114,000 debt load on his or her shoulders.

Regardless of how we got here, I find it alarming that Congress has not passed a budget since 1997. At that time our national debt was just shy of $5.5 trillion. But Congress no longer needs to set an annual budget because of what’s called a Continuing Resolution (CR). It allows Congress to pass a stopgap measure to fund federal agencies with funds not in the budget. So why set a budget when there’s literally no limit to how much you can spend? Just kick the can down the road.

Now let’s see how you manage your household finances. You’ve earmarked $1,200 per year for your Vacation Fund, but your Emergency Fund stands at zero. That’s because you cleaned it out when you borrowed $15,000 to pay for major roof repairs after storm damage. Hey, these things happen.

But, unlike Uncle Sam, you know how to review and adjust. So a year later, that’s what you do. You decrease your commitment for vacations and start building the Emergency Fund. It is going to take a while to pay for that roof.

If you had access to and used a CR, you’d be ignoring reality. Not making adjustments to their situation is how households get into financial difficulty. And how a country accumulates $39 trillion of debt with no end in sight.

Uncle Sam is a perfect example of how you should not handle your household finances. Without a firm budget, elected officials have the ability to play games with our finances. Just ask any TSA employee. I feel badly about their unreasonable and politically guided treatment.

If you and your spouse were concerned about being able to pay for an upcoming bill, would you cut off your kids’ allowances? Of course you wouldn’t. That’s why you built up that Emergency Fund. But if you were Uncle Sam, you could always rely on the CR.

Don’t handle your finances like Uncle Sam. If needed, don’t hesitate to consult an accountant, financial advisor or even a responsible family member.