We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

From America’s Premier Editorial Cartoonist

Today’s essay has been unlocked for free subscribers and friends. But why miss out? Paid subscribers receive all of my latest cartoons, exclusive sketches, and early access to my weekly essays each Sunday, plus additional benefits like discounts on merchandise and the ability to comment. Merry Christmas to you and yours! —Michael

MERRY CHRISTMAS

by Michael P. Ramirez

“Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…” What they failed to mention were the rats.

Merry Christmas, everyone.  I will make this week’s essay a little shorter; I know, you can thank me later. Think of it as your Christmas present… mostly because it’s the fourth week of the Advent Calendar, and Christmas happened to fall on the same day this year, so I was doing double-duty with Church yesterday morning and then Midnight Mass last night. 

I love Christmas. 

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Okay, I admit it: using familiar Christmas themes for cartoons makes my job easier (not to mention, with the average IQ of our politicians dropping faster than the temperature in winter time, CSPAN is truly the gift that keeps on giving), and drawing presidents in Santa outfits is always fun… and fitting when you think of the last few presidents taking on the persona of Santa Claus and doling out taxpayer-funded presents to the masses like rich grandparents trying to buy their way into our hearts and higher poll numbers. 

The national debt increased by a whopping $7.8 trillion during Donald Trump’s one term. Granted, it was a unique circumstance with COVID-19 infecting the world, but it is such a huge amount of money that it is difficult to contemplate.

According to my Echo, which dutifully delivers advertisement for everything I mention in conversation throughout the day (when did I mention naked jet-skiing in the Fjords?), the length of just 1 trillion dollar bills, that’s one and 12 zeroes or $1,000,000,000,000 laid end-to-end measures 96,906,656 miles, which exceeds the distance from the earth to the sun. 

The Biden administration pretends it is Santa Claus.

Alexa also said it would take 25 million quarters stacked up, or about half of the interest we pay every minute under Bidenomics, to reach the distance from the Earth to the sun, but now, she’s just showing off. 

To put all of that in perspective, the current real U.S. national GDP is about $22.5 trillion. And as I’ve mentioned before, President Trump added $1.3 trillion BEFORE covid hit. That was about the same amount as Barack Obama’s largest annual deficit while he was president. 

President Biden is continuing the tradition… but at a faster pace. The Biden administration is claiming to be cutting the deficit, but here’s the little trick they are using: instead of using normal budget pre-COVID numbers, they are using the pandemic-inflated budget baseline and then building on top of that.  

I think I touched on that before, with Biden’s proposed 2023 budget having the highest sustained spending, tax, and deficit levels in history. Not to mention adding a projected $16 trillion of debt over ten years, bringing our national debt to a whopping $52 trillion in 2033.

The sad part of all of this is that federal revenue has been increasing at a historic pace as well. If we just limited the increase in spending, responsibly managed entitlements, and cut taxes and regulations, we could grow the economy out of this hole we’ve dug. 

But you would be wiser to believe in Santa than in fiscally responsible politicians. And finding even just three wise men in the whole of DC would be a challenge these days.

As I mentioned, I love Christmas.

My family has always embraced the tradition of Christmas.

I love Christmas because my mother and father loved Christmas. I was blessed with the most wonderful mother and father. 

My father was a devout Roman Catholic, and we always got dressed up and spent Christmas Eve at Midnight Mass. He taught us the importance of the event we were celebrating beyond the commercialized, sanitized version of Christmas and the reason behind exchanging gifts.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

What a gift. 

Even if you were a non-believer, the spirit of giving, the sense of charity, and good will throughout the season is touching and should be embraced. The angelic benediction in the proclamation of the birth of the Prince of Peace and the spirit of loving everyone as brother and sister is encapsulated in our celebration of the season

Peace on Earth, Good will toward men. 

Or as we know it in Ramirez world:

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Luke 2:14

It is a wonderful notion that should be manifested in the way we live, incorporated in our daily lives, personified in how we treat each other, and embodied in our relations with our fellow human beings throughout the entire year. Embrace that spirit of peace and good will, that is, until you hear Taylor Swift try to sing Last Christmas. 

Then there are editorial cartoonists… 

I should note that my father and mother were saints, or at the very least, should have been seriously considered for canonization because they endured raising me.  My priest tries to perform an exorcism on me every week before I enter church on Sunday.

I used to make my own Christmas cards… 

One year, it read on the outside:

If you’re a DEMOCRAT, you believe in SANTA CLAUS because you believe in getting SOMETHING for NOTHING.

On the inside:

If you’re a REPUBLICAN, YOU OWE ME $3.25 for this card.

One year, I had a cartoon of a scowling, dour-looking dog wearing a Santa cap sitting on a high mountain peak with a red sky and moon rising behind him…

On the inside, it read: 

As the blood red moon slowly rises in the east,

Casting shadows of death for all to see…

I sit here talking to my dog, Skippy and he says,

“Merry Christmas, Thanks for everything, and WE know where you live…”

A governor friend of mine told me that after he received my card, he almost forwarded it to his security detail until he saw it was from me. He was also wondered what kind of medication I was on.

My mother loved decorating the Christmas tree. I have this beautiful artificial tree from Costco (endorsement fee requested here). She would carefully contemplate the placement of each ornament, each one bearing a significant memory. 

In the Ramirez household, we celebrate Christmas twice. Because all my brothers and sisters and most of their spouses are doctors, someone was inevitably on call and could not make Christmas, but the entire clan could always gather on New Year’s Day. In Japan, the tradition of exchanging gifts falls on the New Year’s Day celebration. So, we celebrate Christmas with whoever is around and then exchange gifts on New Year’s Day with everyone. Christmas and the Christmas tree extend well into the month of January. 

The Christmas before my mother died, we had so much fun decorating the tree; when she suddenly passed away the following January, we kept the tree up all year. 

I told everyone it was a tribute to her, but it may have been just a convenient excuse not to have to put everything away. They should make trees, like pop-up books, so you just open them up, plug them in, and all the lights and decorations are already in place.

But it wouldn’t be the same without those memories we carefully place on each branch. 

Looking at the tree reminds me of how lucky I was to have the luxury of my mother living her last years with me in my home and trying to repay all the love and support she gave me, that my mother and father gave us, throughout their lives. 

I hope you have the most wonderful day and really contemplate the precious gift we have been given and the gift of Life. Enjoy it with your loved ones because time is invaluable and finite. 

You never know what will happen. One of these days, I may actually write a short essay… Sorry about that – your gift is in the mail. Lost? Uh, it’s the Post office’s fault… or that exorcism may work.  

Have a very Merry Christmas and the most joyful Holiday Season!

Michael’s recent essays: