QUID EST VERITAS: Pampers or Pizza?

By Patrick Weadon
My wife and I were married in 1983. Sometimes when we look at our pay stubs from that year we wonder how we survived. Finding the money to take care of a growing family was a constant challenge, but my wife always seemed to find a way to make a dollar out of a dime.

Despite the constant monetary challenges one thing was always sacrosanct, namely Friday night pizza. In 1983 you could get two large pizzas for around 10 bucks. No matter how bad a shape the budget might be, my wife, knowing how much I looked forward to Friday nights, would always find a way to keep the “pizza” appropriation in the family budget.
Then, in 1996, something truly amazing happened, our twins Joe and Colleen joined the family. For those of you who are the parents of twins, you know it is an incredible experience, but also an exceedingly expensive one. A few months after we brought the babies home, my wife made the unprecedented, and unwelcome, pronouncement that Friday night pizza would have to be put on hiatus. I protested but my wife admonished me and stated, “Look Pat, it’s either pampers or pizza, there is not enough money to pay for both, and I think you know the right choice.”
Indeed I did, but all was not lost. Being a good wife, and of Italian lineage, she told me she was infinitely familiar with the ingredients needed to make pizza at home and that for the foreseeable future that would have to do. I have to admit the homemade stuff wasn’t bad, but I looked forward to the day when I could once again, pick up the phone and call Dominos. The bottom line was the 10 dollars was needed for something more important than my own personal pleasure.
I thought about the aforementioned story the other day when the Presidential panel that was formed to reduce the deficit came out with its recommendations. Among them were the following:
1) Gradually increase the retirement age for full Social Security benefits to 69 by 2075;
2) Eliminate the current tax deduction that homeowners receive for the interest they pay on their mortgages and impose a 15 cent-a-gallon tax on gasoline;
3) Impose a three-year freeze in the pay of most federal employees and a 10 percent cut in the federal work force;
4) Eliminate Congressional earmarks.
I was not crazy about all the proposals, but I was glad to see that someone was finally getting serious about addressing our nation’s financial problems. Sadly, almost immediately, a corps of political leaders and pundits on both sides of the aisle condemned the initiatives. Conservatives whined that the proposals would add too much in the way of taxes, while liberals screamed they would destroy the social safety net.
The less than positive reception reminded me of a comment from a recent column (The Joyless Election) in the Montgomery County Gazette by the presidential scholar Allan Lichtman:
Americans expect their government to provide benefits such as old-age pensions, unemployment compensation, disaster relief, border security and protection from foreign threats. They expect their government to ensure a prosperous, steadily growing, full-employment economy. Some even expect government to enforce standards of personal morality. Yet, Americans also cling tenaciously to contradictory traditions of self-help, limited government and fiscal responsibility.
In short, we cannot have it both ways, so let’s get back to Pizza night. When my wife made the decision to go from delivery-style pizza to the homemade stuff, she was seeking to find a way we could fulfill our obligations to our children and still enjoy some of the good things in life. In short, my wife’s wisdom helped me understand I would have to survive with a little bit less of what I wanted so WE - as a family - could get a little bit more of what WE needed.
We need to do the same as a nation. The greatest gift we could give to each other this holiday season is to make a commitment to find ways that all of us can sacrifice for the greater good. There are certain priorities that are indelible to the existence of our nation.
We need, like the Deficient Commission, to begin making a serious effort to identify those priorities and then make sure they are properly funded. But, we need to realize we will never find the resources to fund the necessities unless we are willing to do with less of those things that are, in the end, superfluous.
It may be trite, but once again, it is time for all of us to ask what we can do for OUR country, rather than the other way around.
Happy Holidays!