‘Don’t cut a cent:’ Dave Ross on why the national debt never gets under control

Donald Trump’s new treasury secretary is considered a fiscal hawk who will cut whatever it takes to get the national debt under control — a debt that now exceeds $36 trillion. But it’s a promise we’ve heard before. EVERY president says it has to be done. And yet, it never is.

Which is why every four years or so, I dig this song out of the archives to remind us why it never gets done:

More on Dave Ross: Dave Ross, Colleen O’Brien retiring after co-hosting ‘Seattle’s Morning News’ for a decade

DON’T CUT A CENT

America’s upset

At this big bodacious debt

We wonder how much longer we’ll survive?

The government’s finances

Could make you wet your pantses

The people with the pitchforks have arrived

Well, you can cut the schools

You can cut the public pools

Cut the onions, cut the mustard

Cut the sauce,

You can cut away the fat,

Fire every bureaucrat

But there’s a line that you had better never cross.

Don’t cut a cent

From my entitlement

I’m worried that you’re gettin’ mighty close

“Cause if you cut a cent from my entitlement

You can kiss your re-election adios

Oh, each retiree

In the double-A-R-P

Has a very simple message to convey

That whoever cuts a cent

Of my entitlement

Gonna find a big surprise election day!

Oh Mr. President

You can go and cut my rent,

Or you can cut my hair or even cut my lawn

You cut anything you please

You can even cut the cheese

But you cut my entitlement

And you gone.

More from Dave Ross: Voters weren’t just voting for change, they were voting for a hormone

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here

Follow @http://www.twitter.com/thedaveross