Hey, At Least 15 Of Them Are Responsible

Just recently, Citizens Against Government Waste came out with its annual report detailing the cost and exact number of pork-barrel projects each member of the House of Representatives and the Senate received (You can see the info yourself here); and I am proud to report that one of my Senators, Jim DeMint, was one of only 5 Senators to waste $0 of your tax money on pork-barrel projects.

(Unfortunately, the other two members of my Congressional delegation didn't do quite as well: my other Senator, Lindsey Graham, was 67th in terms of dollar amounts, and had his 59 projects total $99.2 million; and my Congressman, Henry Brown, had only 17 projects for $31.5 million, and managed to be in the top third of the House's porkers.)

However, you'll also be happy to know that another one of those 5 Senators who didn't request pork money was the Republican nominee for President, John McCain (who has never requested a pork-barrel project during his entire Congressional career); a fact which should indicate to you that the man does have a pretty decent sense of fiscal responsibility about him - something which we could use in the Oval Office come next January.

On the other hand, you'll be disappointed to know that, well, only 5 out of 100 U.S Senators didn't request pork projects. Oh, and you'll be further disappointed by the fact that this 5% success rate is actually the higher of the two houses of Congress; as only 10 out of the 435 members (a measly 2.3%) of the House of Representatives were able to refrain from wasting your tax dollars.

But hey, a few million here, a few million there, what's the difference, right?

LBJ is your Big Brother

You know, a long time ago, Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to one of his friends on the subject of public welfare. In this letter, Mr. Franklin acknowledged the idealistic potential for good that was present in such programs; nevertheless, he concluded the letter by stating that he would, in fact, be strongly opposed to such programs. Why? Well, you see, Mr. Franklin's feeling was that if the Government were to introduce welfare programs many people would try to take advantage of, and abuse, the system. Moreover, he felt that such programs would also cause people to become dependent on the Government.

Turns out, he was right.

Nowadays, over 70 years after the beginning of the New Deal, over 50% of Americans now receive a significant portion of their income from the Government. Yes, that's right, over half of the people in this country have become dependents of the Federal Government. For some perspective, in 1950, that number was around 28%. It hit its high in 1980, at 55%, started to recede as a consequence of the Reagan Revolution and has now started to rise again with the onset of the open-arms, 'compassionate' conservatism of President Bush. (Of course, Compassionate Conservatism is basically just liberalism with tax cuts - not that I'm complaining about the tax cut part, mind you, it's just all that....spending.)

Yes, believe it or not, the creation and installation of massive amounts of welfare programs, from Social Security to Medicare and Medicaid, has had exactly the effect that us Libertarian-Conservatives told you it would: it makes people less dependent on themselves and more dependent on the Government. I know, you're probably wondering why I have to spell all this out - but apparently, a whole lotta people still don't get it.

I mean, if freedom is defined as the ability to do your own thing (being independent), how exactly are Americans supposed to be 'free' if they don't even earn significant portions of their own incomes? How do you expect to be able to prevent a Government from becoming oppressive when half of its citizens depend on said Government in order to maintain their lifestyles?

And I haven't even mentioned the huge, massive, overwhelming deficits we're currently running trying to maintain these stupid programs.

I guess this is just further proof that guys like FDR and LBJ were complete idiots, as their social programs have, quite literally, given a 'Big Brother-esque' quality to the American state. The U.S Government has, since the left-wing revolution of the 1930's and the Socialist revolution of the 1960's, become the do-all, cure-all, and save-all for an unseemly amount of its citizens. Of course, that's not what Government is supposed to be. You are supposed to be responsible for yourself. Well, you were, until FDR and LBJ came along and said that it was really the Government's job to look after you.

I guess they got what they wanted.

Sad, really.