It is time again, so sharpen up the pencils, wipe the dust from the calculator, and spread out all the deductible bills from 2012.

What a joyous time of the year. Spring is just around the corner, the birds are chirping, sap is rising and trees are beginning to bud. All is well in the land of milk and honey. It is time to pony up and send off your earnings from blood, sweat, and a few tears to a grateful government focused like a laser beam on looking out for you.

Yes, there is nothing, but joy in the land. Just think, each year you have the privilege of writing out a hefty check made payable to the Internal Revenue Service and sending it off to a bottomless pit in Washington, D.C.

The government is so accountable and frugal with taxpayer money until it is a joyful occasion each year. However, we the people have no one to blame, but ourselves for the royals in Washington.

They consider themselves far superior and smarter to manage our affairs, and just look where that has us; $16.5 trillion in debt and adding to it every nanosecond of the day.

Washington needs your money. Sequestration kicked in March 1st. It was believed that if allowed to implement itself, planes would drop from the sky, California would sluff off into the Pacific and all the milk cows in America would suddenly go dry.

There are some dire predictions for attempting to slow down the growth rate of spending for the coming years. It is even possible the Department of Defense may even have to give up an F-35 or two.

These are not cuts in the sense of the word, as we know it; it is simply holding back the growth of spending a wee bit.

Real cuts will come later if nothing is accomplished now to reduce the huge deficits and the borrowing taking place against future generations. It is better a little pain now than to have to go cold turkey later.

Government would do well to heed this advice: “[A] rigid economy of the public contributions and absolute interdiction of all useless expenses will go far towards keeping the government honest and unoppressive.” — Thomas Jefferson, letter to Marquis de Lafayette, 1823

The last two presidential administrations, along with Congress, have placed us in a very precarious situation. It is not a matter of if fiscal Armageddon coming, but when.

There is more than a smidgen of sarcasm and irony in the paragraphs above, and sadly enough more than a smidgen of truth also.