It was a dark and stormy night when the government minions were meeting. Well, not exactly, but what this column is about will not take place on a nice, cozy little farm either. It doesn’t make any difference whether it’s within the halls of the U.S. Capitol, the Maine State House or Windham’s Town Council chambers, the crocodile tears and cries of dismay of elected and appointed government officials are echoing across our once financially sound borders. But alas, somehow those in government acquired too many credit cards, spent too much during the so-called good days and in the end, I can only suspect that our wallets will be squeezed a little harder in the near future.

Unlike the way we have to manage our finances, government finds a way to spend more than it budgets and now the day of reckoning is here, especially in our nation’s capital of Washington. Make no mistake about it, the elected officials sent to that city by the voters know what they have done and what’s worse is that none seem to have any remorse for the financial doom placed on the futures of our children and grandchildren. Lately the news from that cesspool is about something called the sequester. Congress passed and the President signed legislation that would slash federal spending next month by about $85 billion dollars. Mind you, this is out of a federal budget of several trillions and yet the sky will fall across America. Our food will be contaminated, planes will fall from the skies if one can even board a plane and our children will become stupid for a lack of teachers.

This sequester, which is a reduction in the federal budget, was proposed by Obama in 2011 and passed by U.S. Congress and signed by the President. Yet many editorials across the U.S. blame the Republicans for creating the predicted financial disaster as even the President does. Well, what can one expect when the majority of children in America are educated by none other than the government itself.

Believe me, and I have written about this many times because government takes care of itself far better than it cares for the citizens that pay taxes, one can only bet that the government at all levels will be seeking higher taxes in the near future. All I can ask is that you don’t blame local businesses when they have no hamburger, chicken or Twinkies. Oops, as Twinkies will be produced by another bakery conglomerate, the failure cannot be blamed totally on Washington.

Last week, the Windham Town Council special meeting centered on nothing less than the sky falling upon the taxpayers of Windham. I can’t remember any other council meeting in the past coming close to the doom and gloom forecast by various department heads. The only thing missing was department heads telling our governor to kiss their butts because of his proposed slashing of municipal handouts. Mind you, when the state began sharing its revenues with municipalities they warned that there might come a day when the money well runs dry. I am not sure, in fact, that the well has run dry but rather that there are too many buckets being dropped into it.

What was most notable is that everything was put on the so-called chopping block except for one thing. What’s that “thing” you ask? That is nothing other than their own jobs and the jobs of those they want to protect. I can’t recollect anything being cut from the town manager’s staff budget. The assistant town manager mentioned something to the effect of closing the food pantry. The skate park and Dundee Park might close according to the Director of Parks and Wrecks (guess the tree harvesting at Lowell Preserve will pay him). Crime will become rampant and more than likely your house will burn down.

Lane Hiltunen, of Windham, wonders why any elected official deserves even a penny of taxpayer dollars.