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Published Sunday, January 01, 2012 in Opinion

A New Year's resolution anyone can keep

By Alex McRae

The Newnan Times-Herald

Unless, of course, your livelihood isn't dependent on saving money so you can buy food, but on spending it so you can buy votes. And no group is more dedicated to this task than the members of the U.S. Congress.

American families get it. They understand you can't spend more than you take in and survive. Congress doesn't. Maybe it's time it felt our pain. And this is a great year to make that happen.

In 11 months, all 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives will be up for re-election. So will one third of the Senate. When they ask for your vote, ask how they plan on cutting the federal budget. When they huff and puff and swear they've already cut spending "to the bone," ask them to explain a few items that Congress felt were vital to the national welfare.

Like these...

Last year Congress threatened to freeze federal salaries and did nothing. Meanwhile, government bean counters paid $120 million in salaries to federal workers who were dead. This action was actually applauded by government unions, who continued to collect dues from the deceased.

Surviving federal employees can comfort themselves with a bountiful breakfast at the International House of Pancakes franchise the feds just paid $765,00 to open in D.C. Supporters of the "Pancakes for Yuppies" program say the federal assistance was needed to convince the company to open for business in an "under-served area of town."

The federally-funded IHOP is within a block or two of a Starbucks and a Target. The bureaucrat who decided this was an "underserved" area must have been "over" served too many times at the local bar.

On the cultural front, taxpayers spent $550,000 to produce a film that explores how rock music led to the collapse of the former Soviet Union. A truckload of Lady Gaga videos might help explain the current decline of the U.S.

And speaking of places on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, U.S. taxpayers also spent $350,000 to help subsidize an art exhibition in Venice, Italy. The Italians were too broke to fund their own festival.

On the education front, Pakistani kids will soon be as smart as their American counterparts now that $10 million U.S. bucks has been spent producing a Pakistani version of Sesame Street. Wonder if the Pakistani Elmo says "Death to the Infidel."

If young people want to discuss these fiscal abominations, we'll know how effective they were thanks to a $765,000 study of how college kids use mobile devices for social networking. Maybe one day they'll start using their smartphones to find a job.

On the bright side, we've been assured the housing mess has been cleaned up at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Soon, we may find out why the IRS allowed over $1 billion in tax credits for energy efficiency home improvements to people who had no record of owning a home. The list of beneficiaries included a 3-year-old child and several people whose home address was a correctional facility.

Election day is coming up. Before you vote for an incumbent, ask yourself if it makes good financial sense to re-hire the same politicians who are so blind to reality or beholden to special interests they can't -- or won't -- recognize government waste when they see it.

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(Send your email comments to: alex@newnan.com )

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