We hear it every election season, every budget battle, every debt ceiling debate, and just generally every other time the issue of our run amok spending proclivity takes center stage in the Kabuki Theater that is American Politics. The Democrats, armed with their infinite benevolence, will trim our budgetary spending to a more manageable size, painlessly, by a simple elimination of the fraud, theft, and waste, lurking so maliciously in the back alleys and cigar smoke filled rooms parasitically attached to our nation’s capitol. They will lend this pontification as if it has never been stated before. It will be said, (and they deserve a lot of credit for this feature by the way,) with a straight face, as though this blindingly obvious suggestion has never been made before. It will be stated as though until this moment in American History, fraud, theft, and waste, have been acceptable line items in our outlays deemed necessary for managing our nation’s business year in and year out. “Fraud, theft, and waste, of course! Why don’t we cut that?!” It will be stated as if it were some brilliant epiphany, a thought never before entertained by anyone, anywhere, at any time during our brief 237 year history. The single worst part of all of that however is this. That statement will be allowed to sail on by, completely unchallenged by a compliant and completely incurious media, mere shells of the former version of themselves, who at one time actually asked pertinent questions of both political parties and not just the one.
During the latest kerfuffle over our national debt, which by the way has hit asinine proportions, not one thought was given to closing down our Cowboy Poetry Festival, subsidizing our naval vessel’s usage of bio-diesel fuel rather than the 75% cheaper traditionally refined product which gets better gas mileage, ending the program that showers money on Chinese Hookers in an effort to teach them how to hold their liquor, money to once again pump up a disastrous sub-prime mortgage market, or putting an end to the entire green fairy debacle, which saw us pumping money into Solyndra, even after they filed for liquidation. After the endless hand wringing over the vital services lost, kids starved, grannies shoved outdoors to face the elements without food or clothing, puppy dogs kicked, there was still sufficient money left over after paying the tab for the fraud, theft, and waste, to cover such can’t live without programs as the expansion of military usage of bio-fuels, robot squirrels, Chinese pig poop, booze for hookers, etc. Not one of these fine programs faced the angry wrath of the government shut down, but the open air parks and several privately owned homes leased on federal land was a different story.
Please do not get me wrong here. I generally view fraud, theft, and waste, as bad things, and believe that the people responsible should be ferreted out of government and where appropriate, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I just also happen to know that we already have a Department of Justice, and additionally realize that this federal department is currently tasked with dealing with and cleaning up such messes. If there are large budgetary savings to be found here, one would be well within reason to expect that those savings had already occurred. Since every elected Democrat since FDR has promised to save huge amounts of money within our budget by doing away with this scourge, my further expectation is that it should no longer exist.
Cross Posted from Musings of a Mad Conservative.
