Thoughtful Thursday – Fiscal Responsibility

There are some words that should never be put together. For example, “government” and “fiscal responsibility”.

Witness the latest 410 billion dollar bill passed by the House and headed to the Senate on top of the 780something billion that has already been allocated and the 643 billion that our new President wants for health care reform.

At a time when most of America is counting its pennies and watching its investments cut in half due to the irresponsbility of our financial institutions and fraud from various “investment companies”, our Congress wants to spend money on the following “essential” programs:

  • $500,000 for a Senate “pilot program” that will defray the cost of mass mail postcards to households notifying them of a nearby town meeting to be attended by any senator
  • $200,000 for “Tattoo Removal Violence Prevention Outreach Program”
  • $5.8 million earmark for the “Ted Kennedy Institute for the Senate…for the planning and design of a building & an endowment”
  • National Council of La Raza, $473,000 earmark from Sens. Bingaman and Menendez
  • $2M for for the promotion of astronomy in Hawaii
  • $100,00 For some Maine lobsters
  • $295,000 for Florida Marine Sportfish Replenishment
  • $100,000 for a program called…Seals as Sentinels
    • Courtesy Protecting Capitalism

All in all, the bill contains “about 9,000 such earmarks, at a total of about $3.8 billion.” Courtesy Detroit Free Press.

All of this at a time when in addition to most Americans being worried about their finances, tax increases are being proposed for the top 5% of wage earners as well as reductions in mortgage interest deductions for those same wage earners (like that will help the housing economy!)

Do you think that the top 5% is going to be able to make up the deficit created by the above examples of fiscal irresponsibility? Think again.

Call or e-mail your Senator and urge them to pare down the expenses in this budget and the 9,000 earmarks proposed by both Democrats and Republicans. It’s time to send a big bi-partisan no to such fiscal irresponsibility. To get the contact info for your Senator, please click here.