Even Drunken Sailors Have a Credit Limit

Human Events ^ | April 3, 2009 | Brian Darling

[RobinMasters]

The saying “spending like a drunken sailor” comes from the 1700s and 1800s, when sailors would come ashore from a long time at sea and go on a wild spending spree. These sailors were constrained by the amount of their paycheck and the credit they could incur from people who knew them.

President Barack Obama has something that a drunken sailor lacked: a printing press that prints government cash and credit, not to mention the power to tax when he runs a bit low. Generational theft is alive and well in America, and, according to my calculations, the Obama spending spree has cost the taxpayers, their children and grandchildren a whopping $4.27 trillion in spending and $2.4 trillion in new taxes to date.

Let’s take out the calculator and add up all of the Obama administration’s spending to date.

[Kozak]

Saying Congress spends like drunken Sailors is an insult to Sailors.

At least Sailors spend their OWN money....

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

The saying “spending like a drunken sailor” comes from the 1700s and 1800s

Proving that the author is unfamiliar with contemporary sailors.

[AndyJackson]

Sailors also get something for their money, and lest anyone forget, they also spent years at sea working hard, catching wales, trading goods, and defending the oceans to improve other peoples lives, not like these blood-sucking leeches doing the will of wall street, who think that trading CDSs is somehow a productive enterprise.

[Bobalu]

[fieldmarshaldj]

"catching wales"

I take it Ireland was too large.

[NavyCanDo]

“At least Sailors spend their OWN money....”

NavyCanDo given you a big DITTO on that one. About $373 a month of my own money if I remember right. And if payday was falling a few days after pulling away from a port like Naples or Barcelona, you often went to loan sharks on the ship who would charge you between 25% to 50% interest. It was brutal, yes, but to pull into ports like those with no money was worse.

[OBXWanderer]

not like these blood-sucking leeches doing the will of wall street, who think that trading CDSs is somehow a productive enterprise

Precisely Andy, and when that "drunken sailor" ran out of HIS money, he went BACK TO WORK, to make more of HIS money.

[central_va]

As a former drunken sailor, I am getting very tired of this analogy.

[Petronski]

Two points about that "drunken sailor" thing:

• Drunken sailors spend their own money, and
• When they run out, they stop

[Leisler]

[Leisler]

Former what? Drunk? Sailor? or both.....or did you buy a powerboat?

[CPOSharky]

Off TOTUS he talks like he is half in the bag already. How long before he passes out and gets mugged by the B-girls and their pimps.

[DuncanWaring]

Perhaps he's referring to the broad, thick planks around the outside of wooden ships.

[central_va]

USN 1982-1986 MED cruise 1983, UNITAS cruise 1985.

[fortheDeclaration]

As a former drunken sailor, I am getting very tired of this analogy.

LOL!

[savedbygrace]

Here’s the part of the analogy that holds up, I think:

Like drunken sailors (or any drunken person, military or not), Congress has no idea or clue what they’re spending the money on.

[central_va]

Like drunken sailors (or any drunken person, military or not), Congress has no idea or clue what they’re spending the money on.

From personal experience, I was never to drunk to not realize what I was spending my money on, the real question was whether my inebriated state affected my ability to make quality purchasing decisions.

[sport]

The United States has one. It just won’t be realized until it is too late.

[MooseMan]

+

NOT GOOD