Do you miss the late Senator William Proxmire and his yearly “Golden Fleece Awards”?
Well, if wasteful spending is something you just can’t get enough of, then it’s high time to turn to Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. His report on the “Worst Waste of 2008” came out in early December, and it’s quite a read.
Just skimming the report can keep you fuming for weeks. Here it is, a new year, and I’m still fuming. Over what? Well …
- $3.2 million on a blimp the Pentagon does not want.
- $300,000 on specialty potatoes for frou-frou restaurants.
- $2.4 million for a retractable shade canopy at a park in West Virginia.
But it’s not as if you cannot mount a defense for some of this. It’s not as if Congress isn’t thinking ahead. Congress has already allocated $24.6 million to the National Park Service for the institution’s centennial, and the centennial is eight years away!
Well, I didn’t say you could mount a good defense.
Americans already know that Congress lacks common sense. But what we need to learn, Coburn says, is that “[u]ntil Congress abandons the short-term parochialism that gives us LobsterCams and inflatable alligators, we will never get a handle on the major economic challenges facing this country.”
Coburn’s report is gold. It proves that, yes, we’ve been fleeced.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
6 replies on “Worst Waste of 2008”
I have always thought Congress should meet out of doors during a winter session in January and February plus a Summer session during July and August. The summer session should only be on an “as needed” basis. If such were true, think how much less harm could be done to the nation.
Hell’s Bells, Paul with Congress’ speechifying that limited. we might solve the problem of global warming in one fell swoop. We might rename the Speaker of the House to be the Silence of the House! With Madame Pelosi that might be an absolute blessing!
Not so much fleeced as bludgeoned.
I enjoy your column. Thanks.
‑mark-
IT IS TIME TO SUE CONGRESS FOR THEIR PORK AND EARMARKS SPENDING.
Unfortunately, we cannot sue them for their Stupidity but we can sue them for taking money from Special Interests and then giving them our money.
The only way any of this can be corrected is an out right revolution that removes those representatives and congressman by any means.
I agree that Congress should meet out doors, on the Northern coast of Alaska, (ANWAR would be a good place) but it should be during high Summer, when the mosquitoes and biting flies are thick as smoke. Leave ’em up there for three months to enjoy the “natural beauty”
Many of us are on the verge of giving up. The frustration levels have reached epic levels.
Spending under the guise it will stimulate the economy by allowing corrupt bureaucrats “manage” (sic) everything means only spending more money we do not have.
We even borrow money so we can contribute it to organizations that then take their cut before they pass it downstream to even more who take cuts. Plus we give money to groups who just use it to politically assassinate America’s character.
Americans will rue the day we turned the keys over to a liberal majority who have already revised Congressional rules to silence the minority party, when the same minority party had created such rules so the then minority (Democrats) could have a voice.
Why do we go to extra efforts to help those who are destroying us?
In two years the level of pork & corruption will be so great no one will possibly be able to identify half of it, let alone all of it!