On negative examples

Continuing the theme of Americans spending beyond their means, Bushco isn't exactly setting a positive example for its citizens:

Treasury Secretary John Snow notified Congress on Monday that the administration has now taken "all prudent and legal actions," including tapping certain government retirement funds, to keep from hitting the $8.2 trillion US national debt limit...

Snow in his letter notified legislators that Treasury would begin tapping the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, which Treasury officials said would provide a "few billion" dollars in extra borrowing ability.

Treasury officials also announced that on Friday they had used the $15 billion in the Exchange Stabilization Fund, a reserve that the Treasury secretary has that is normally used to smooth out volatile movements in the value of the dollar in currency markets.

Treasury has also been taking investments out of a $65.3 billion government pension fund known as the G-fund.

Sad though the parallel is, it's all the more unbelievable that the (comparative) brains of the administration whichis currently gutting pension funds in an attempt to fund absurdly large tax cuts and wars of choice feels entitled to lecture individual Americans on their lack of savings. Hypocrisy, thine name is Bushco.