To the editor:

Political candidates are certainly free to “cook up” new ways to spend the public’s money, but they all ignore the fact that it’s the Congress, by constitutional authority, that gets to decide whether, where, and how much money will actually be spent.

Voters appear to believe candidates when they expound on all of these false promises. I have noticed both major political party candidate for the White House and Congress are constantly bloviating about items they surmise will influence voters in their personal direction.

Does anyone want to make America great again? Does anyone want to continue along the current path that will definitely lead to bankruptcy? Does anyone want a larger (and more expensive) military?

How many of you want a free college education? How about free medical care also to be provided by our good old government? Why don’t we toss in the “tooth fairy” also?

Politicians are all mentioning some extravagant and expensive conceptions they identify as a “right and an entitlement” for the general public. I have noticed not one of them have ever explained or suggested a method to pay for these pipe dreams.

Time for all voters to wake up. Utopia is a concept of an ideal life, perfect bliss, supreme happiness, paradise, Eden and Shangra-la, all rolled into one. It also exists only in one’s mind. It does not exist in Washington, D.C.

I urge everyone to join me in my letter writing campaign to any and all political candidates demanding an explanation of their plans to both pay for their proposals and the entire $19.6 trillion national debt. Our debt is currently growing at the rate of $1 million every 84 seconds.

We only need to look at Greece and Venezuela to see what happens when the political leaders of any country choose to ignore their fiscal responsibilities. Venezuela is currently experiencing in excess of an annual inflation rate of 500 percent, plus in addition to a lot of major civil unrest.

We should not be deluded into thinking those same conditions cannot happen in the USA. They both can and will.

R.E. Workman

Cape Coral