Should we be mad?

By Joseph Parish

Well it seems like the old saying that persistence pays off is true. Congress has approved and sent its outrageous spending bill up to Obama for his final signature. Although some of the GOP members were completely against the bill it still passed without any sort of problems what-so-ever.

This past Tuesday congress increased America’s debt to the tune of another $410 billion dollars. The bill was approved by a 62-35 margin. As with any bill which is usually introduced into the congressional records, this one had its own supply of pork waiting patiently to be approved. There was no shortage of pet projects which were craftily tied up in its wording and including the usual 10 percent increase in the Congressman’s budget. The increase alone uplifted the total amount being earmarked to an additional $4.4 billion.

Yes ladies and gentlemen you heard me right! During our times of drastic unemployment, during our periods of bank foreclosures and during our business downturn our congress men have decided they don’t make enough money. Unlike you and me however they can remedy the situation by merely giving themselves a pay raise. Unfortunately we do not have that luxury.

Should we be mad? Your darn tootin’ we should. We should be hopping mad at the congressmen and particularly to President Obama who will sign the bill as it is. Read my lips Mr. Obama…. It’s called line item veto. Obama has it in his power to veto portions of the bill that does not provide benefit to the people. Will he use this privilege? I doubt it very much. He needs the Democratic support of congress to pass his planned socialist agenda so he would not in any way, shape or form wish to offend those who will help him achieve his goals.

This $410 billion bill would not have been such a problem had we not long ago seen Obama's economic stimulus bill with its forecasted $1.8 trillion deficit. It appears that it is business as usual in Washington, as this man who wanted to make major changes to the system seems to have his priorities in the wrong places. He is more then willing to sign this bill which is packed with various pet projects. Things haven’t changed here. The only thing that is changing is our form of government.

This 1,132-page spending bill, although it reached 410 billion failed to address the financial requirements of several big money spenders such as Defense, Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security. These expenses will be presented under a separate bill at a later time.

Several key names that we might wish to keep in mind for the next election include Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Lamar Alexander as major supporters of the bill. According to “Taxpayers for Common Sense”, McConnell has sponsored $76 million dollars worth of personal pet projects. Alexander on the other hand has promoted $32 million for his. In a typical about face in the end McConnell failed to continue support for the bill however Alexander followed thought supporting it all the way.

I commend the representative from Texas Kay Baily who suggested that we revert to the 2008 levels of spending in an effort to provide responsible actions to the people. Now this made a lot of sense but it seems like sense is mute and doesn’t talk much in congress these days.

Shame on you Mr. Obama. After all your pre-election speeches on forcing congress to curve their wastefully spending you overturned your own convictions in favor of increased pork spending. You really should be embarrassed with signing a bill that contains almost 8,000 earmarks with a total of $5.5 billion dollars. Several of your wasteful spending programs that are contained within the bill are $485,000 set to provide support for a boarding school dedicated to “at risk native students” located in western Alaska or perhaps the $1.2 million earmarked for the “Helen Keller International” to provide eyeglasses for students with poor vision. These are certainly worthy projects however, let’s start getting realistic. We have some very serious problems here at home which should take precedence over these issues. Oh yes, and let us not forget the 10 percent increase in funding for the government supported, money losing Amtrak rail system.

Should we be mad? You’re darn right. Its time we started telling the politicians where our priorities lie. Contact them and let them know what you think. We put them in office and we certainly can take them out!

Copyright @ 2009 Joseph Parish