Spending Frenzy II: Because one was not enough

So now that The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has hit the American people, the House decided that while they were at it, let's go ahead and add even more programs and pet projects into the newest version of the "omnibus" spending bill. I mean, when you have already spent nearly $800,000,000,000, (yes folks, that is alot of zeroes), then what is another $410,000,000,000? For you non-math majors, that is over 1.2 trillion dollars... for effect, 1,200,000,000,000. In fact, our federal government this year will run a deficit of over 1 trillion dollars. Could you imagine if we as consumers ran deficits that great? Actually, % wise, some of us probably are, but hey, we are learning how to spend from our elected leaders, so I guess that makes it ok.... right.

What makes me the maddest of all though is the amount of pork, earmarks, waste, BS, whatever you want to call it, that this bill contains. According to the Taxpayer for Common Sense, the bill contains over 8,500 earmarks for special projects that total almost $8,000,000,000 in spending.
http://www.taxpayer.net/resources.php?category=&type=Project&proj_id=1961&action=Headlines%20By%20TCS

And according to my favorite talking head Glenn Beck (5pm on Fox News every weekday. Watch it and learn something new), nearly 60% of the pork represents Democrat pet projects. That means that 40% of the pork belongs to none other than the conservative-minded, small government chanting REPUBLICANS!!!!!!! They make me sick. Bobby Jindal goes before the nation Tuesday to give the Repub response to Obama's address, and specifically talks about the Republicans being the party of change to a smaller, more efficient federal government, and then two days later we read about the passed budget. I am disgusted with all of them. Except for my congressman, Tom Price, who was one of the few House members to officially commit to zero pork projects. Good for him and the others who have a backbone, but I'd like to see the rest of those hypocritical goons booted out of office.

And while a little pet project here or there may seem to be reasonable, it is downright wrong at its very essence. Why should my tax dollars fund a nature preserve in southern Mississippi? (one of the Republican earmarks in this bill) If that city or town or county wants a nature preserve, then raise the money locally. Put it up for a referendum and let the local taxpayers decide if they really want the preserve that badly instead of trying to hide it in a monstrous bill that most congressmen won't even read.

I could harp on this topic for hours to come, but its Saturday. Enough for now. Have a great weekend people. Go out and run up your credit cards today. I'm sure your dear Congressman will find a way to bail you out too.

Spending Frenzy

I don't know if any of you watched Obama's address to Congress on Tuesday night, but I found myself glued to the TV for the duration of the event. Not because I was so enthralled with excitement about hearing Obama speak, but because I was in such disbelief of what I was hearing. Even though he was constantly interrupted by Pelosi et al and their wide-grinned, thunderous ovations, I think I was able to hear most of the statements that came out of his mouth (More on Pelosi and her botox-induced permasmile another time).

A couple of key points that I will go into more detail on in upcoming posts:

• Obama claimed that he did not want to increase the size of the federal government. I'm not sure how he is going to back that up when his plans call for increased oversight into health care, increased financial services oversight (not to mention the fact that our government, aka you and me, is buying ownership into the private banks), taxpayer-funded R&D on energy reform, etc etc.
  
• Obama said that credit is the lifeblood of our economy. Unfortunately, at this point he is correct, but this has to be changed. I can't wait to write about this one.
• He wants to give tax breaks to 95% of Americans, of which nearly 47% don't pay taxes now, and increase taxes on income earners above 250k, and somehow cut our federal deficit in half. So let me get this straight. He will tax the producers in our economy more heavily, redistribute that wealth to citizens who pay nothing (redistribution of wealth, anyone?), increase spending 2 fold, and somehow cut our deficit in half. I was not a math major, but the numbers don't add up.
  
• He spoke often about three critical areas of concern for our future: education, energy management, and health care overhaul. While I agree that these three areas are of utmost importance, I can't agree that his solutions will be the best solutions for any of them.

What makes matters worse is that Bobby Jindal's Republican response was.... not good. As much as I respect Louisiana's Governor, his performance was forced and came across a bit hollow. If it did not resonate with me, I can't see how others to the left of me would have bought into it.

New and Improved

I know its been a few months since I have posted anything, and I apologize to all three of you reading this for the lack of reading material I have provided. I needed a bit of a break, although I can't really tell you why. As you can see, if you are on this page, I changed up the blog address to more accurately describe what it is you will find on here. While I will still post every so often about the Braves, college hoops, and anything Stewie Griffin, the bulk of my postings moving forward will be focused on some of the fundamental and challenging issues that we as Americans need to better understand. Over the past few months, my eyes have been opened to so many critical issues that I have previously just glossed over and failed to truly understand. And with our current socio-economic ups and downs (mostly downs right now), we all need a dose of reality regarding our country's leadership plans, and what kind of impact these plans will have on our future for years to come.

If past history is any indicator of our future, we all need to "re-learn" many of the facts about our system of government and free enterprise that we have been taught and accepted as truth. America is changing, and we have an opportunity to either take part in shaping that change, or to sit back and watch as others change it for us, for better or for worse. With so much going on today, it is vital that we at least understand the true consequences of our decisions and the decisions that others are making for us.

So I am setting out to accomplish a few things. One, to have a forum to write about whatever I choose to. Gotta love the first amendment. Two, to bring up issues that I believe to be important to all of us, and show you how they are relevant. Three, make you think. And hopefully agitate you in some way as well.

Enjoy.