Congressional Pork

It appears that the tightening of the belt is a demand that our elected officials are more willing to impart on the American people than to do themselves. And their shenanigans are being shoved down the American people without any second thought or shame.

Case in point is a $90 millions appropriation that Congress has stuck in the already disgraceful stimulus bill. The appropriation was inserted in the bill as an increase in incumbency protection. It is basically directed to increase the members of Congress office budgets for the fiscal year 2010 and as justification for it Congress is using the fact that the year is an election year and therefore the expenditures for the members are going to be higher for travel and offices and salaries and supplies. This is somewhat puzzling as the expenditures of elected officials dedicated to re-election efforts are, by law, required NOT to be coming from the taxpayers’ pockets but from fund raising and donations.

Having been caught in a less than legal declaration, Pelosi and company have fixed it by saying that the mention of the “electoral cycle” was not intended as a justification, but only as a chronological statement as the increase in expenditure is designed to aid the incumbents to bring their message to their constituencies in a more efficient way, operation that is more intense during election years.

So let me see if I understand this. Each member of Congress needs an increase in funding for his or her re-election every two years, funding taken from working Americans without their approval, because during election years said politicians need to increase their communication with their voters. It actually makes somewhat of a sinister sense to me, because the only time these elected officials actually get out of their ivory towers and mingle with us, the little people, is when they finally show their true images of political whores and want our votes. And we, the simple and ignorant masses, oblige by re-electing people like Pelosi and Reid and Murtha and Boxer and Feinstein and Specter and Durbin and Kennedy and Kerry and Grassley and Hatch…and I could go on and on.

It has been a while since I have voted for an incumbent and I do not see that happening again in the foreseeable future, but this demonstrates how apathetic we as a society have become. Even if we do vote, we must have the tendency to just do it in an automatic and mindless way, as this incompetent and criminal scum keeps on getting re-elected time after time.

So the $90 millions are going to be taken from us, the ignorant masses, and given to these elitists so that they can blow more smoke in our eyes and, after re-elected, they can just get back to their corruption and hypocrisy until next election cycle. And if anyone is paying attention, their legal explanations cover up any impropriety. Now you all understand why the majority of politicians are lawyers.

Certainly, one may argue that 90 millions are really not that much compared to the monstrosity of the 3+ trillions of the whole porkulus, and this thinking is exactly what these criminals are counting on, because it is through apathy, disinformation and total lack of information that the manipulation of the average American is a done deal.
These politicians count on the fact that the average American will take his or her information from the 15 seconds snippets of News during their favorite TV show, so their control over the Media is all they need to perpetuate the ignorance of their constituencies. And if one disagrees with what they say. One will be labeled a “right wing activist” deserving of FBI surveillance.

So, my dear Americans, continue to be uninterested in the operations that our politicians are conducting against America. It is likely that by the time you will realized that your apathy has cost the country so dearly, the erosion of the American ideals will have been so extensive that it will be a real shock for you. But you know, you only have yourself to blame.
What is the solution? Easy, when 2010 elections are approaching, do some reading and get informed about your House Representative and your Senators and make an informed decision about wanting to keep them or fire them. Just make sure you get your info from reliable and disparate sources.

It is not a fluke nor a word game the fact that the US Constitution begins with “We The People”, but it is the genial idea of our Founding Fathers to give us the power to get rid of those in public life who do not deserve to walk around what should be the sacred halls of Congress.


And these are my thoughts!
Frank “Semperpapa”