The Pittsburgh National Bank has once again crunched the price of a “twelve days of Christmas” gift list for your true love. PNC found that the cost of five gold rings is up 39% from 2021. At least with all those French hens and geese a-laying, you might be able to offset the cost of eggs! Housing, fuel, and most everything else were more expensive in 2022. We’re not economists, but between people working less, massive spending on COVID measures, and now bolstering Ukraine’s war effort, it seems plain that you can only kick the can of fiscal consequence so far down the road. 

Some year-end spending was necessary to avoid a government shut down, but the House outdid itself passing an omnibus bill worth as much as $1.76TR. A number of lawmakers complained that reading the final 4000-page bill in 48 hours before voting was too tall an order, but given the indecipherable nature of “legislative language”, US News suggests “reading a bill is not the best way to figure out what it does” anyway. That, apparently, is a job best left to your team of legislative specialists – but even they might need a bit more than two days to read through this one!

It’s good to know that someone in Washington is wide awake and worried about monetary recklessness. Senator Rand Paul released his annual Festivus Report, outlining what he sees as the most wasteful government spending. Watching hamsters jacked up on steroids fighting or determining whether Thanos could do the snap while wearing the gauntlet are not things we had on our Government Spending Bingo card.