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Jewish World Review Oct. 27, 2005 / 24 Tishrei, 5766 Don't forget to say ‘thank you’ after being looted By John Stossel
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
What Congress did is disgusting.
You heard what the Senate did to Tom Coburn's attempt to impose
some sanity on spending.
How do they live with themselves?
Years ago, interviewing economist Walter Williams for a show ABC
News called "Greed," I was perplexed when Williams said, "a thief is more
moral than a congressman; when a thief steals your money, he doesn't demand
you thank him."
That was silly hyperbole, I thought, but watching Congress
spend, I see that I was naive and Williams was right.
When the Democrats held power, I confronted Sen. Robert Byrd
about wasting our money on "Robert Byrd Highway"-type projects in West
Virginia. His answer was as arrogant as he was: "I would think that the
national media could rise above the temptation of being clever,
decrepitarian critics who twaddlize, just as what you're doing right here."
"Twaddlizing?" I asked.
"Trivializing serious matters," he explained.
I persisted, "Is there no limit? Are you not at all embarrassed
about how much you got?" Byrd glared at me in silence, and finally demanded,
angrily, "Are you embarrassed when you think you're working for the good of
the country? Does that embarrass you?"
The Republicans promised to change the culture. Democrats sold
panic. "Don't vote for them! They're going to shrink government and take
away your favorite programs!" They needn't have worried. The Republicans got
elected, but if the Democrats' goal was to expand the government, they were
the real winners.
Once Republicans were in power, they started spending money even
faster than the Democrats did.
Big spender Ted Stevens responded to Coburn's good suggestion to
kill a "Bridge to Nowhere" with a tantrum on the Senate floor: He threatened
to resign and "be taken out of here on a stretcher."
Good! Sen. Stevens, please go. I'll even help carry the
stretcher.
Unfortunately, Congress has an unwritten code: "Don't threaten
the other congressmen's loot." The Senate reprimanded Coburn by voting 82 to
15 to save the Bridge to Nowhere.
The Ketchikan, Alaska, bridge is particularly egregious because
it's a bridge to a nearly uninhabited island. Yet it will be monstrous --
higher than the Brooklyn Bridge and almost as long as the Golden Gate. Even
some in Ketchikan laugh about it. One told us, "Short view is, I don't see a
need for it. The long view ... I still don't see a need for it.
Last week, Alaska's other senator, Lisa Murkowski, said it would
be "offensive" not to spend your money on her bridge. When she first became
a senator, I asked her if Republicans believed in smaller government. She
was unusually candid: "We want smaller government. But, boy, I sure want
more highways and more stuff, whatever the stuff is."
I'll say. Alaska's pork projects spanned 67 pages. They get much
more than other states. "Oh, you need to come up," she said. "You would
realize it's not pork. It's all necessity ... People look at Alaska and say,
'Well, gee, they're getting all this money.' But we still have communities
that are not tied in to sewer and water. There are certain basic things that
you've got to have."
But my children shouldn't have to pay for them. If people want
to live in remote areas of Alaska, why can't they pay for their own sewers
and water, through state or local taxes, or better yet, through private
businesses? Why should all Americans pay to run sewer lines through the
vast, frozen spaces of Alaska? Because Alaska has no money?
Don't believe it. Alaska has so much money, it has no state
income tax or sales tax. Instead, it gives its citizens money from something
called the Alaska Permanent Fund.
Stevens, Murkowski and Don Young, who once told critics of the
Bridge to Nowhere that they could "kiss his ear," are not unique. Republican
politicians talk about limited government, but the longer they are in power,
the more they vote to spend.
Spending your money, they want "more stuff."
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© 2005, by JFS Productions, Inc. Distributed by Creators Syndicate, Inc. |
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