If all the Government spent money on was silly “feel good” bills like HR 1022, we wouldn’t have a $15 trillion debt or anything remotely close to it.

The reason for that $15 trillion debt is here:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/U.S._Federal_Spending_-_FY_2007.png

Medicare and Medicaid cost around 2 million times more than HR 1022. So with great fanfare, fiscal conservatives could get HR 1022 rescinded, nice publicity–but we would still have that $15 trillion debt.

Talking about HR 1022 is no substitute for talking about the Ryan plan or the Wyden plan.

here in Houston, of all places.

Granted, I certainly I agree with the author and would say this is a silly waste of taxpayer dollars. I oppose it. I would advise my member of congress to vote against it……..but let’s get real – if you add up every single earmark per year, it would not even be a ROUNDING ERROR in terms of the fiscal problems we face. The problems lie in entitlements.

I’ll be totally honest, earmarks do not really bother me. Bailouts bother me. Entitlements bother me. Crony capitalism bothers me (GE, Solyndra, Government Motors, etc)……..sending $400k to some district to study Buffalo Soldiers doesn’t really bother me.

Steve King (IA-05) questioned Cory Gardner’s (CO-04) conservative bonafides (and manhood) a couple of years ago during the campaign.

Cory’s been a consistent vote for the conservative cause, and has stuck by the pledge to not vote for increased spending.

King voted YEA, Gardner voted NAY.

Steve King is nothing but a big blowhard.

has for this very kind of nonsense he will beat Obama 60-40.

Each year things like this are brought up. Why don’t they spend their time working toward voter ID, a national primary election or something useful!!

In New Mexico I was looking over some bills that some want passed and I came across SB 25 — a bill to ‘raise awareness of the USS Arizona Sub’. How stupid is that?? Is it worth spending thousands of tax-payer dollars on? Gov. Gary Johnson would NOT be proud.

Check it out below:
http://www.nmlegis.gov/lcs/_session.aspx?chamber=S&legtype=B&legno=%20%2025&year=12

In a $60,000 annual family budget, this would represent about $0.006. That’s 6/10 (six tenths) of one penny.

Wrong? Yes. Meaningful? No.

Entitlements are killing this country and will continue to do so because nobody in Congress has anything approaching enough courage to address them.

This is a silly little bill that no one really cares about. They could have opposed it and no one would really have made a fight there. Instead they went with the easy option, passed it, and wasted $400,000 of taxpayer money. But that is besides the point.

The point is this: If they won’t hold the line on something politically insignificant, how can we expect them to fight the battles where people care? When they talk about cutting Medicare, cutting Medicaid, cutting Social Security, these are all programs that have a lot of support. Trimming them back would require a real fight. These guys have just shown an unwillingness to stand when there is no fight.

Proof we are doomed….

“CBO estimates that conducting the study would cost about $400,000 over the next three years. Enacting H.R. 1022 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. ”

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billreport.xpd?bill=h112-1022&type=cbo

If very discretionary spending such as this isn’t subject to pay go, what is?

We are doomed.

and they will bully and swear the gop hates Indians. Waste of time and money.

The reason there were so few objections is because our leaders have conditioned themselves to be risk-averse and don’t want to be called racists for voting against any bill that commemerates our black cavalrymen. They were a storied group, but in the end, they were American soldiers, not Black-American soldiers. That they fought bravely and with little recognition is acknowledged and commemoration is warranted. I think that they have become such a revered group that raising $400K privately would not have been difficult. Taking over more land for this purpose seems unwarrented. The trail should be built within what is already designated a National Park where more land takeover would be unnecessary.

Grated it’s 0.0000whatever% of the Federal budget, but it a rather great percentage of the legisalture’s time. If the GOP leadership came out saying that they were going to oppose all bills or ammendments involving trivial sums as well as all votes “Recognising”, “Remembering” this and that in the Hosue and Senate until they actually deal with some of the real problems that the poor electorate was sent them to Washington to do something abou, I think it might play rather well outside the beltway.

my Congressman voted NAY.

There is a quiet movement within the progressive ranks that will slowly take control of ALL land in the U.S. Recently, the land grab extended from the border of Montana and Canada down to the border of New Mexico and Mexico and across the midwest. Here in west Texas, there is a huge controversy over whether the Fish & Wildlife folks will put the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard on the Endangered Species list, which would make the land worthless so far as oil, gas, ranching, and farming are concerned. (By the way, the lizard is not in any danger of extinction as they number in the miillions, but surveys can be skewed.) In Texas, the land is owned by the state and cannot be “taken” by the U.S. government. To put the lizard on the Endangered Species list would enable the government to effectively have control. In fact, they could then come in and buy the “worthless” land for a song. Declaring land along the path of the Buffalo Soldiers trail as federal land is just one more way for the U.S. government to lay claim to more land.

When the land is under government control, the people are no longer free to move and operate and do business without government permission.

Very telling about Obama’s agenda for this country.

Is President Obama Creating
A Nation Of Dependents?
http://www.lucianne.com/thread/?artnum=662400

All the conversation about ‘small’ this and ‘big’ that in regards to “voted on spending bills” = CRAPPOLA.

Each one of you here (me included), should be required to point to the place in the Founding Documents where it says we are to do ANY OF THAT STUFF on the Federal level.

Try as some might, using the “Art of Parse” and other mental masturbation techniques, we CAN’T.

Why do smart people like ourselves, knowing what we learned, gut-checking the situations, and seeking clarity over agreement, do ANYTHING but preach the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers to our communities???

There are currently (3) politicians we hear about that have the proper mindset (IMHO) = Rick Perry, Sarah Palin, & Newt. They speak to what I described above.

The rest of the Congresscritters — not so much.

Thank you for letting me rant ….

how much money do we give the UN again?

You just can’t make this stuff up.

http://www.innercitypress.com/un2drugs012612.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 26, updated — A large quantity of cocaine has been found upon entry into the United Nations compound, “via the UN diplomatic pouch,” a well placed UN source has exclusively told Inner City Press.

Inquiries with both member states and security officials confirms the find of “forty pounds of pure cocaine… through the scanner” — the scanner which security sources say is located the UN’s still open third sub basement.

Whistleblowing sources complain that while international drug trafficking is (at least) a Federal crime, only the NY Police Department was called, apparently with little follow-through so far. “Why didn’t they let the pouch be picked up and see where it would lead?” this whistleblower asked Inner City Press.

After the “suspicious package” was found, select UN Security personnel were convened and cursorily told that it had been turned over “to the host country.”