Dexter Iowa Community Site

Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

$410 Billion Dollars. Sometime this week President Obama will sign the Federal Budget bill, all $410 Billon pork laden dollars worth. And in case you were wondering? The cost of this to you..the taxpayer is over $20,000 per household.

The group Taxpayers for Common Sense notes 8,600 special pork barrel projects totaling $8.2 Billion Dollars. It is no surprise that the Democratic heads of Congress state that the number is actually much lower at $3.8 Billion. It’s a sad state of affairs when Nancy Pelosi stood up and challenged everyone to rid the federal budget of pork spending, yet now defends it as necessary.

President Obama, who just last week stood before Congress and denounced the unnecessary spending habits of the legislature in these “difficult times” is waving his hands in a “don’t pay attention to the man behind the curtain” move, by saying he’ll sign the bill and not use the power of the line item veto, because, this budget was President Bush’s fault and President Obama would like to just start forward on October 1 with the Obama era budget. Spokesmen for the President want us to all be aware that he has inherited all of the overspending and wastefulness in government. Ok…sure, I can see where you are leading us with this…but you campaigned on Change…NOW! Um…wouldn’t this be a good time to start?

And while we are asking the questions, what says he on the $710 Billion Dollar stimulus package that contained more pork than a canned ham? Was that the previous administrations doing as well Mr. President? Please explain to me why the National Endowment of the Arts received $50 Million Dollars, another $650 Million will help people buy digital TV converter boxes, $600 million will go to allow government employees to purchase new government assigned vehicles, and oh yes, my favorite…$335 Million to educate the population on sexually transmitted diseases. You know all of these people are sure facing hard times aren’t they? And while you look up those answers Mr. President…could you possibly explain why we, (the you and I that pay taxes) are handing out another $30 Billion dollars to AIG?

And just so we all don’t get to short sided here, lets’ take a quick peak at what Congress has given us the bill for with this budget.

• $713,625 Woody Biomass at SUNY-ESF. Walsh and Schumer sponsors- Woody Biomass?
• $951,500 Sustainable Las Vegas. Berkeley and Reid sponsors.- Obviously the Vegas gambling racket isn’t pulling in enough money.
• $24,000 A+ for Abstinence. Specter is sponsor.- Well it is less that the money spent on diseases I guess.
• $300,000 Montana World Trade Center. Rehberg sponsor. Is anyone flocking to Montana?
• $950,000 Myrtle Beach International Trade and Convention Center. Graham sponsor.- Makes perfect sense to me. This will be a great place to let the banking industry hold parties with their bailout money.
• $200,000 Oil Region Alliance. Peterson sponsor.- Does the American Consumer need to do anything more for the Oil companies?
• $190,000 Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY for digitizing and editing the Cody collection. Barbara Cubin is the sponsor- Ok….I’ll let you have this one..it’s Buffalo Bill after all.
• $143,000 Las Vegas Natural History Museum, Las Vegas, NV, to expand natural history education programs. Sponsored by Harry Reid – I hope they add a wedding chapel!
• $238,000 for the Polynesian Voyaging Society, Honolulu, HI, for educational programs. Sen. Daniel Inouye is the sponsor. – I have no idea what this is? A society for Polynesians taking trips?
• $381,000 for Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York, NY for music education programs. Jerrold Nadler is the sponsor.- Now I like Jazz as much as Bill Cosby, but $381K worth?

Now, I don’t want anyone thinking I’m picking on the honorable Senators from other states so here are a few doosey’s that come from our friends Harkin and Grassley.

• $8.588 Million - Kika de le Ga 128 Subtropical Agricultural Research Center in Weslaco, TX.- Wow..Senator Harkin. Weslaco, Texas must send a lot of voters to Iowa for you!
• $1.791 Million- Swine Oder and Manure Management Facility in Ames, IA- Once again compliments of our friend Senator Harkin. Want to be sure those in Glenn Oaks can’t smell Iowa Agriculture.
• $69,000 for ISU Extension/Farm Safety for Just Kids- Both of Iowa’s Senators are in on this…and I can’t complain much on this one. And added to the other things, like Farm Lubricants, Dairy Education and the like, Extension got a pretty hefty sum of money this year.

To be perfectly honest, I stopped after 18 pages just in Agriculture appropriations only because my eyes began to bleed. With a little digging on the internet this information is fairly easy to find even if a little scary to read. I’m certainly not against the government helping out here and there as the need arises. But let us be very careful of where we spend, and let us remember when those on Capitol Hill in DC and at the Statehouse in Iowa stand up and start raising the taxes of you and I, just where the money is going in the first place.

If you think that they state legislature won’t be asking continually for a hike in gas tax to pay for road projects (some of which got funded the day the Federal Stimulus package was signed into law and Iowa’s DOT received a healthy dose of free spending money), then I’m sure there is a tropical plant research center in Texas that you could make some throw pillows for the longue or volunteer your time at.

And maybe its time for our legislators to realize they need the lesson that we are learning at my house right now, and at millions of other households across this nation. Sometimes we need to tighten our belts and go without the want things, just in order to make sure the needs of the people are met, now and down the road.

See you next week. Remember, we’re all in this together.