I would rather be walking behind the southern end of a northbound skunk than be involved with the shenanigans happening in Washington with the federal budget and debacle of increasing our nation’s debt limit.

I just love the latest poll which shows 60 percent of Americans believe that every member of the U.S. Congress should be expelled from office, but what worries me is the other 40 percent are the ones voting them into office. No matter when or what the outcome of the budget talks becomes, one can bet that the surest loser by far will be the American taxpayer.

The saddest part of the budget battle is that the American people are used as pawns by members of Congress and the White House. National parks were shut down, memorials like the one for World War II were closed with barricades and important services rendered by the government ceased to be available to citizens.

What is laughable is that the Obamacare website was initiated the first of the month but was so poorly constructed that the government had to shut it down. What I really love is that the president, members of his press corps and other lovers of Obamacare were shouting with glee that citizens would be astounded with how great the Obamacare website would be. I am still laughing at them since the website has been described as a technological dinosaur as far as today’s standards go.

Many government employees were furloughed and some were called back to work without pay while the president and members of Congress continued to get paid. Some national parks were reopened after the states where those parks are located agreed to fund Park Service employees. I was extremely pleased to see the veterans march on Washington especially when they carried the barricades blocking entry to the World War II Memorial and placing them in piles in front of the White House fence. I just wish they had marched over to the U.S. Capitol and carried members of the Congress to the White House and thrown them over the fence.

It’s a dirty shame that elected members of our government used us to benefit themselves. I will no longer vote for an incumbent running for any office in Washington.

I noticed some recent news articles mentioning that the cost of living increase for recipients of Social Security and veterans benefits at the end of this year will be somewhere around a whopping (hang on to your hats) 1.5 percent, maybe. One must realize that first the budget fight must be resolved and the same with setting a new debt limit so that the United States can borrow even more money. What I don’t believe is the government stating that inflation is low and that the majority of prices on things haven’t increased. The truth is that government figures on inflation don’t include items like commodities (oil, gas, grains) because prices of those items would cause Social Security to double every five years. What’s even worse is the new method for computing inflation contains the logic that if something increases in price, we will substitute something else in its place so we don’t need an increase. You can thank President Obama for that one.

Since some states are funding national parks located within their borders, I wonder why the state of Maine isn’t proposing funding for Acadia National Park. Could it be the treasure chest located in Augusta has been so badly pilfered that all of the money is gone? Maybe Augusta has wasted lots of money trying to figure out how to get MaineCare recipients to their health-care appointments on time. At least the state budget is balanced, give or take $40 million or so.

Finally, don’t worry about your tax money in Windham. There’s a proposal to give it to the Windham Economic Development Corporation with no strings attached.

Lane Hiltunen, of Windham, loves his money but fears government loves it more than he does.