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When Washington politicians speak of a Christmas tree this time of year, they are not referring to an actual tree. It means they've loaded up a bill with another kind of "green," the kind that's decorated with money.
The "bipartisan" bill passed just before midnight last Friday, minutes before a government "shutdown" would be an embarrassment to anyone but the politicians who voted for it. Like Christmas, this scenario gets played out almost every year with no regard for the growing debt.
The first bill was more than 1,500 pages. Elon Musk denounced it and suddenly it shrunk to over 100 pages, but that was too little for the big spenders. What passed last week (118 pages) may take days to digest, but you can be sure of one thing: pork is part of it. Always is.
Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL) has compiled a naughty list of misspending dating back to 2009. This is a tiny portion of a much longer list. Call it the "golden oldies" of spending, which is an addiction shared by members of both parties and will continue unless members enter an economic "detox" program. As The Bard noted: "What's past is prologue."
More than $104 million went to the Aleutian Islands for a harbor and an airport in a town with no connecting roads and only 75 full-time residents. Remember the "bridge to nowhere"? That was an earmark of $223 million in 2004 for a bridge that was supposed to connect Ketchikan to Gravina Island, Alaska, population about 50.
Nearly $50,000 went to the Hawaii Department of Agriculture to help support the cacao industry during the Hawaiian Chocolate Festival. Chump change, I know, but, as they say, it's the principle of the thing.
An audit of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) found around 300 employees diverted millions of dollars for personal purchases using government credit cards. Among those purchases were concert tickets to see Ozzy Osbourne, tattoos, lingerie, bartender school tuition, car payments and cash advances. The audit cost $100 million.
The Office of the Chief Information Office at USDA spent $2 million on an intern program. Only one intern was hired.
Outraged yet? Wait, there's plenty more.
An inspector general audit found that the Department of Energy failed to locate $500,000 worth of "green energy" manufacturing equipment bought with stimulus money.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform estimated New York State overbilled the federal government by $15 billion over a 20-year period for Medicaid costs for the developmentally disabled, an amount that exceeded the total Medicaid budgets of 14 states. Don't tell me this and other entitlement programs can't be reformed.
Nearly $800,000 went to subsidize an International House of Pancakes (IHOP) restaurant in what was supposed to be an "underserved community." Instead, it went to an IHOP in the popular Columbia Heights neighborhood. One might ask why it is a federal responsibility to pay for pancakes, but that could be asked about thousands of other examples of misspending. Hey, it's not their money, it's our money. At least a pay raise for members didn't make it to the final bill. Members should be having their pay cut, not raised, for under-performing.
Perhaps Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk can do something about the misspending that has led to the unsustainable $36 trillion debt with interest of $1 trillion just this year.
Others have tried and failed to break the spending habit. Maybe they will succeed this time, but the odds are not good. It's not called "the swamp" for nothing.
Enjoy Christmas. Your politicians will.
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Cal Thomas, America's most-syndicated columnist, is the author of 10 books.