The amount that Congress spends to avoid legislating on empty stomachs is more than enough to make taxpayers sick to theirs.
In just nine months spanning late 2009 and early 2010, the House spent $2.6 million on food and beverages for members and staff, according to the Sunlight Foundation's House Expenditure Reports Database. That figure includes $604,000 just for bottled water, showing that Congress is not just hungry but thirsty, too.
It sounds to me like we need to put Congress on a beans and rice diet.
3 comments:
I have a problem with this sort of thing. I see all over the country, states are cutting either critical infrastructure or political hot button programs, claiming that all the money is gone. They are laying off police and firefighters and cutting education budgets, claiming there is no money. This is just utter BS. It is literally an attack on taxpayers by the government. It's extortion.
Every state government in the nation is bloated with useless programs, yet when the budget gets tight the politicians immediately attack those vital services that the government is supposed to provide. I absolutely do not understand why we can't make cuts that don't SCARE PEOPLE. Because that's all these politicians across the country are trying to do. When they say, "The budget is tight, so we have to lay off a dozen cops", what they are really saying is, "We need more of you money, and if we don't get it, you're on your own."
IMO, the government should be cutting EVERYTHING else before they start firing cops and firefighters that we need. States should be selling off their assets before they cut critical services. They should be scaling back or eliminating social services first. Sell the governor's plane. Cut back on perks for govt. employees. Close and/or sell buildings. City after city has expensive, public-built sports arenas. Sell them. Maintaining an opera hall isn't a critical function of government...not like having enough police on the streets is.
That We, The People lay down and take this sort of extortion is extremely depressing. In theory, we should be able to starve a bloated government of money and force it to become leaner and more effective. In practice, it ain't working. Everyone should be alarmed at this, as it represents the last chance we have to save our American government. It's quite obvious that politicians, despite decades of promises to make government "leaner, meaner, and more effective", simply will not do it. Most recently, this is what Obama promised and he clearly lied.
So We, The People have to do it, and our tools are limited. About all we can do is starve the government of the money it needs to operate, and the only way we can do that is to all quit...or lose...our jobs. Well, we've done that and instead of reasonable and responsible leaders making the cuts we need, we have these political hacks threatening us openly with cuts to vital services.
So what are we going to do? It seems like we're going to have to take some more drastic steps.
Avondell -
You hit the nail on the head. This article is just one more example of the disconnect between us and our "representatives." It seems to me that the campaigns these liars and thieves undergo to get elected are really just a sort of hazing ritual they must pass through on their way to being installed in the aristocracy.
I think the best thing that we can do at this point in time is point out these excesses and hang them around the ruling classes' necks. This won't work if they have no shame (and it does seem doubtful that they do). The next best thing then is to stir up absolute outrage within the electorate, which is what I hope examples such as this one will do.
Maybe we just need to be even more confrontational than we have been. In Washington, Tim Eyman has used citizen's initiatives to attack spending and taxation directly. Whatever your opinion of Eyman, his initiatives have worked in a couple of cases...for awhile, until legislators find a way to strike them down.
(It's no more obvious than this that the electorate is in a war with the elected in Washington State.)
Lets take it a step further. Lets use the initiatives against the politicians themselves. For instance, lets gather signatures and vote and PROHIBIT them from spending a couple million on food and water. Let's use citizen initiatives to restrict their ability to spend money...not legislatively...on themselves. Lets strip them, one by one, of every perk they have. Lets make being a politician a JOB that requires SACRIFICE.
And God help the first person that whines, "We wont be able to attract qualified leaders!!!"
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