Get this: the federal government is offering New Year’s advice on improving our health and managing our money — courtesy of the National Institutes of Health and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Their first recommended resolution: getting fit.
According to the NIH's “Making Your Resolutions Stick” page, common resolutions include losing weight, getting more physical activity and eating more nutritious foods.
Great idea, federal government — but don’t you see the irony in advising citizens to slim down, while your own corpulence — fiscal, bureaucratic and otherwise — continues to bloat?
Here’s another government recommendation: exercise more.
The NIH notes that regular physical activity reduces the risk of serious diseases, lowers stress and improves sleep.
No argument there. Americans need to get their stress levels down — especially after watching Congress pass trillion-dollar spending bills without bothering to read them.
Which brings us to another recommended resolution: improve finances.
The CFPB's “5 Financial New Year’s Resolutions” page urges us to set a budget and stick to it.
We should:
- Track spending to identify areas where we can cut back, such as eating out or canceling unused subscriptions.
- Create a cash-flow budget that accounts for bills, savings and unexpected expenses.
- Manage debt better by taking steps to get back on track if we’re behind on payments, understand our rights with debt collectors and avoid ignoring our debt problems.
That’s excellent advice — except that the federal government doesn’t stick to a budget, plan ahead for unexpected expenses and has achieved GOAT status — greatest of all time — for ignoring debt problems.
The national debt now tops $38.4 trillion, with annual deficits nearing $2 trillion — and interest payments alone hitting about $1 trillion.
To be fair, there has been at least some acknowledgment of the problem.
The Department of Government Efficiency — DOGE — identified and cut some wasteful spending programs. And President Trump’s administration has pursued other targeted cuts.
Still, regardless of who is in charge, spending and debt keep growing — in big numbers.
The great humorist P.J. O’Rourke explained the spending problem better than any economist ever could: “Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.”
The NIH also encourages Americans to quit smoking.
It points people toward removing temptations, getting social support, tracking progress and having a plan for slip-ups.
That is good advice for smokers, but I’m thinking nicotine addiction is way easier to overcome than the government’s compulsive desire to spend money it doesn’t have.
The CFPB advises us to boost our credit score by paying bills on time, avoiding debt and, in a nutshell, living within our means.
Hey, CFPB, if anyone needs to boost its credit score, it’s the federal government.
The U.S. lost its AAA credit rating twice — in 2011 by Standard & Poor’s and again in 2023 by Fitch. In 2025, Moody's Ratings downgraded U.S. sovereign credit from Aaa to Aa1.
In any event, as federal agencies provide guidance on how to be more disciplined in 2026, I offer the federal government a proposal.
I’ll adopt your New Year’s resolutions — but only if you go first.