Much has been made recently of the "financial cliff" and the upcoming "battle" over increasing the federal debt limit in exchange for spending cuts. Even though we are living beyond our means, borrowing 40 cents of every dollar we spend (is that how you make ends meet every month?), there will be few meaningful reforms or cuts. Why not?

Because we won't vote for them or accept them for ourselves. Instead, we repeatedly vote for Congressmen and Senators who campaign on how much federal money they've brought us. (Why are we sending money to Washington, then sending people there to get it back for us?) Everyone says "Cut what you spend on the other guy, not on me." The AARP even asks is members "What more do you want to government to do for you?" We've also elected a president whose job, before public office, was to organize community groups to get more money from the government for programs. He's continuing the same glide path in the White House, asking 53 percent of us to pay for the other 47 percent of us.

Let's get off the merry-go-round and ask our representatives for meaningful changes before we go off the fiscal cliff for good and reach the point where nobody will lend us the money with which to overspend.

Binnie Perper

Ferndale