Commentary: Tom Purcell - Save for a rainy day? No need Tom Purcell FacebookTwitterEmail When I grew up in the 1970s, my father taught my sisters and me to “always save for a rainy day.” He was a child of the Depression, after all, one of the longest “rainy day” periods Americans have ever experienced. In 2021, however, America’s new national mantra appears to be “borrow and spend like the sun will always shine.” Our federal government has certainly been following that approach. Sure, because the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdowns crushed the economy and raised enormous social costs, almost everyone agreed that emergency spending measures were necessary.