As the “supercommittee” ponders options, preparing the ring for the next round of the budget fight, it seems like a good time to thumb through the file of clippings and remind ourselves of what we have learned and what the problems look like up close. Here are some of the things interested parties have said in the past year and a half about the way America spends its money.

A posting at the Cato Insitute’s Cato@Liberty website in August 2011: “Republicans and Democrats have come together on a ‘historic’ budget deal that cuts federal spending by more than $2 trillion over 10 years. … Spending isn’t being cut at all. The ‘cuts’ in the deal are only cuts from the Congressional Budget Office ‘baseline,’ which is a Washington construct of ever-rising spending.”

The Wall Street Journal, July 28, 2011: “The looming debt downgrade only confirms what everyone knows: Congress has made so many promises to so many Americans that there is no conceivable way those promises can be kept.”

Time magazine, Dec. 13, 2010: “Nearly two-thirds of U.S. retirees now count on Social Security for more than half of their income, and one-sixth rely on it entirely.”

CNNMoney, April 15, 2010: “Between 2009 and 2013, the government will lose out on nearly $600 billion because of (the mortgage-interest deduction).”

Forbes magazine, March 15, 2010, quoting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: “One state retiree, 49 years old, paid, over the course of his entire career, a total of $124,000 toward his retirement pension and health benefits. What will we pay him? … A total of $3.8 million. … Is that fair?”

The Wall Street Journal, in an opinion piece: “There are now more than 15,000 government retirees (in California) who receive pensions that exceed $100,000 a year …”

It’s hard to prepare for every kind of weather, but sometimes it’s easy to tell which way the wind is blowing.