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Will anyone take my bet that during the next election season, the presidential and congressional candidates will talk about how much or too much the current administration will spend or has spent?

How about this one? Every incumbent candidate will be accused of supporting or not paying for programs popular with their voters.

Suppose most news you consume is television or popular internet media. How easy will it be to find accurate figures about where your tax money and the money the government will borrow in your name is being spent? Do you care, or have you given up caring because you think government is self-serving anyway?

Why would it be essential to start an impeachment inquiry about President Joe Biden in the short month Congress has to pass appropriations bills before the next fiscal year? Dont they have a lot to do to make sure the country runs efficiently?

National headlines and even less prominent articles in newspapers and magazines read by residents of all the land between the coasts (except a few large cities) have not covered the substance of budget hearings. The authorization to spend money for all the responsibilities of the federal government is Job One, but its not being done.

The last time all government managers knew how much they could spend in the next fiscal year was in 1996! Appropriation bills have only been passed on time five times since the end of the fiscal year was extended by three months in 1976, going into effect in 1977.

Any private enterprise that could not fund its planned new initiatives would go bankrupt. If a company cannot move forward, it dies. I would not invest in a company with the money-management skills of the U.S. Congress. That is why two credit rating companies have issued rating downgrades. Our economy is robust, but our government has signs of instability.

No doubt, government managers will receive money via continuing resolutions. Then ... Congress will pass an omnibus spending bill that will quietly feed pet projects and partisan interests while holding all government spending to a growth rate lower than inflation. Or, there will be an attempt to pass appropriations individually and defund the Department of Education if Trump doesnt get the chance to do it.

Opinions will flood the media. They will all point to the lack of proper governance but rarely to the strategic objective of a decades-long attempt to starve the beast of expensive government. Voters consider their economic well-being before the needs of the common. They ignore President John F. Kennedys exhortation to, Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

The truth is voters expect a lot from their various forms of government, but they want the expense to come out of someone elses pocket.

The Tea Party latched onto the idea, making it hard for the government to raise revenue. We have had almost 50 years of budget chaos running parallel to the effects of reducing revenue to curtail federal government interference. The strategy also starves state and local governments. The actual harm is the lack of transparent and easily accessed budgets and dollar amounts spent linked to specific programs in specific agencies of specific Cabinet-level departments. The voters cant see that the services they want are underfunded.

The impeachment investigation is a way to plan newsworthy events and plant stories picked up by media outlets that distract us from paying attention to government funding. The Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, proposed the first temporary spending bill in mid-September to restrain public outcries over a possible government shutdown while still leaving that possibility on the table for his more radical colleagues.

Yep, the voter must remain in the dark and be urged to blame the current administration for the impasse. Its even better when the government is shut down. The situation becomes painful, and an autocracy run by the party that promises better days becomes desirable. However, like any business run without financial oversight, the guys at the top will take the money and run.

Its a circus and mirrors, making it complicated for the voters. Because ...

Linda Brugger of Twin Falls is a social scientist with an inquiring mind. She has written an opinion column for over seven years. Reach her at IdahoAuthor@outlook.com.

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BRUGGER: Watching the congressional circus - Times-News