I am wondering of the sanity of our government. Last weekend, driving home from Sacramento, my wife mentioned when we came to a rather nasty curve along Highway 20.
Why if California is so broke are they spending huge money to carve away a mountain to realign this curve?” I could not answer with logic so I smiled and shrugged. In minutes, I began to wonder. How many hundreds of thousands of expenditures as ridiculous as realigning curves are undertaken by California that finds itself so deep in deficit spending?
I couldn”t even guess at the amount of funds being spent to bring down a mountain to realign this curve, but I sure could guess at how many teachers receiving lay-off notices could have used the money instead of spending them on realign curves. I thought about how many school buses districts might have been able to replace aging transportation fleets or keep janitors and aides.
I thought of how many law enforcement or fire fighting personnel might have been placed on duty with these funds being dispensed on this endeavor to realign this curve. While I pondered this, my wife then added, “I wonder how many of these endeavors are being undertaken where the funds might have been better used in this country?”
Now the thoughts that my tax dollars are not being prioritized has broiled my blood and instead of enjoying one of the most beautiful drives anyone could experience, my stomach was rumbling, filling with acid, and my mind-set was black. I thought to myself, I bet there are thousands of these endeavors taking place not only in California but across the country then recounted the many ads politicians level on unsuspecting Americans trying to make us believe there is waste and they will put a stop to it and my mood blackened considerably.
Now Clear Lake becomes visible and instead gasping a sigh at the raw beauty of the lake unfolding from green hills and mountains in all its glorious majesty, my stomach was boiling hot cauldron of acid lapping at my throat.
Politicians, and I mean all of them who dispense our money, these tax dollars, and they do so without one single regard as to how very difficult it is for the average American to part with our dollars or how effectively they are being utilized for the public good.
I ask, is there a fix to this? Among ideas that come to mind are that government wastes. I go back to realigning curves. We have watched teacher after teacher receiving lay-off notices. Fire and police personnel receiving lay-off notices. I see cities declaring bankruptcy, their infrastructure decaying, and our government realigns curves.
Now folks, I am not the brightest light bulb in a lamp but it seems to me we”re not prioritizing when we”re fighting a war in Iraq and we have homeless hungry children in America, and I sure know government is spending billions in foreign aid to nations that do not like us while our streets are filling with pot-holes, teachers being laid-off, police without jobs.
Now remember, I am sitting here angered, my blood boiling as bad as the acid pit in my belly and it dawns on me. Folks, our problem is 545 people. That”s right, 545. Our problem is 435 members of the House of Representative, 100 Senators, one President, and nine Supreme Court Justices. These people are the moral leadership of this nation.
Tell you what, we got deficit spending cause they want it. We got Marines in Afghanistan and Iraq because they want it. We got $4.30 gallon gas because they want it. That”s right, these people are responsible, and it gets worse.
Why, some time back the leader of the majority party in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi delivered a stinging attack on President Bush for deficit spending. Folks, according to the Constitution I read, the House of Representatives of this country is responsible for all appropriations and taxes levied on the people of this nation.
Lord save me, we”re being led by 545 morons and what is worse, their sickness has spread down to the local and state levels of government.
You know, old man Thomas Jefferson wrote, and by the by, he is one of the founding fathers of this magnificent nation, that when government ceases to work, it becomes the responsibility of the people to remove if necessary and repair the government.
Regarding these 454, we reelect these people some 90 percent of the time. Guess I can”t get to mad anymore?
Sherman Baker is a resident of Kelseyville.
