(Not addressed  to GRP loyalists, but to my lovesick Demecratic friends)

Help me out. Some of you have been in situations like these.

This isn’t about me. It’s about … a friend’s situation. Of course.

So: imagine you’re in love. The kind that only comes once in a life time: stars in your eyes, clouds at your feet; rainbow and unicorns on the dreariest of Monday mornings, the scent of musk, cognac, and opium in the bedroom every night.

The guy–make it a woman if you’re so inclined–is in so many ways everything you wished for. He’s good looking, a snappy dresser, has a great smile, your friends can’t believe you landed him, and you’re not ashamed to bring him home to dinner. He’s wicked smart, but he doesn’t put on any airs about it–just not his style. He has a great job, knows his way around limos and private jets, hobnobs with the occasional celebrity. Does it possiby get any better than this?

Indeed it does. Because he really cares about you, too. In fact, you can trust him when he tells you he loves you. And when he got down on one knee–well, of COURSE you said yes. And everyone agreed–it was the most beautiful and inspiring wedding they’d ever seen.

There’s just one hitch. He grew up in a culture where a particular kind of dope was all too prevalent. In fact, his entire neighborhood’s livelihood was based on refining and selling the stuff. So, of course, through no real fault of his own, he got himself a habit, and while you’ve dated guys who’ve messed around with the stuff before, he spends like there’s no tomorrow feeding his jones. In fact, looking over his ATM withdrawals, you wonder if he isn’t spending more each year on the stuff than everybody else in the ‘hood combined.

And you also realize that as a result, you’re both broke. Living entirely on credit. And with your bank laughing at the idea of extending any more credit, he’s in real deep with the sharks. And he’s STILL indulging–at a greater rate than ever.

So you had a little talk. Explained that health risks aside, you simply can’t go on spending like that. He knows what you’re sayin’. He goes into his office, spends the night in there. Next morning he explains that he’s solved the problem.

“You’re right. We really need to be more responsible. So here’s the deal. We don’t spend a dollar more than we have on everything else. And I do mean everything else. Not only that, but I’ve figured out how we can cut back on spending on food, clothes, utilities, entertainment, books, music, cars–you name it. But the dope–sorry. I’m going to need even more. It’s the one item we can’t touch. I know that won’t solve all our problems, but it will least get the banks to listen to us if we tell our story right.”

What would you do?

Because that’s the situation you’re in. We’re all in. I’m guessing that you wouldn’t watch your future drizzle away at the hands of a cokehead boyfriend. Why are you giving Obama a pass?

We’re now dealing now with a president whose most recent plea for tens of billions of dollars to escalate the folly in Af-Pak was supported by more Republican congresspeople than it was Democrats. A president who “asked Congress to approve a record $708 billion in defense spending for fiscal 2011… a 3.4 percent increase in the Pentagon’s base budget to $549 billion plus $159 billion to fund U.S. military missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Obama’s spending freeze on other parts of the budget, to try to rein in the deficit, did not apply to the military.” And a nation that is, a result, “… insolvent and faces bankruptcy as a pure debtor nation but the rating agencies still give it high rankings… actually, the huge military expenditure of the US is not created by themselves but comes from borrowed money, which is not sustainable.” (Guan Jianzhong, chairman of Dagong Global Credit Rating–the citation is from The Financial Times. That’s a serious paper. Yes, he’s a serious man.)

You can’t afford this. Don’t let your Obama-love blind you to that reality. This madness has to stop, and stop now.

This insane drain is NOT the fault of the Republicans. This is (y)our President and (y)our Congress bankrupting us. You voted for him. He works for you. Is there really NOTHING you can do?