Politicians’ “Profit Motive”
Polls show that 57% of Obama voters last year thought Congress was controlled by Republicans! (yes, it’s true. Zogby Poll)
And Obama voters were very upset with Congress (The Congressional approval rating was about a third of Bush’s approval rating. Congressional approval was at 9%). They wanted a CHANGE in Congress, so Obama voters voted Republicans out (because they thought Republicans controlled congress)! But actually Democrats controlled congress so they voted in more of the people they were angry with!
And I predict the anger will continue. The Wall Street Journal had articles today detailing how congress is continuing to abuse the American people.
Foreign travel by members of congress is up, way up. “Lawmakers say the trips are a good use of government funds because they allow members of Congress and their staffs to learn more about the world, inspect U.S. assets abroad and forge better working relationships with each other.”
As with every mis-expenditure of taxpayer dollars, they have come up with a reasonable and even decent explanation for all this travel. But like anything government does, this is rife with abuse. Their explanation does nothing to explain why Congressional FAMILY MEMBERS are traveling at taxpayer expense more than ever.
As some members of Congress have bitterly complained about executives of bailed-out banks using corporate jets for travel, many of those same members fly on government planes and bring family members along!
So many people have told me this year they think we’ll be better off if government takes more control over more areas of our lives. I always ask them why they think government leaders – who are afterall human just like the rest of us – are somehow more ethical and less greedy than the rest of us. One woman told me it’s because people in government go into government because they want to serve others, therefore they’re less likely to abuse us. Another said there is no “profit motive” for people in government so they’re more likely to do the right thing.
So here you have it… these members of Congress – not motivated by profit, who want to serve the public and do the right thing – screwing the public with their flagrant abuse of hard-earned taxpayer dollars to fund their own personal travel.
In an effort to help members of Congress and their staffs “learn more about the world and inspect U.S. assets abroad” Congressional members fly government jets to such fab travel destinations as Jamaica, the Virgin Islands and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef! Great scuba diving on the Barrier Reef by the way. I hope they were able to take in a little of that on their “learning more about the world” mission!
But wait a minute – they do travel to legitimate destinations from time to time. In February House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (who is a Democrat – for you Obama voters) “led a delegation of DEMOCRATIC lawmakers to visit U.S. troops in Afghanistan FOR A DAY.” They spent a single day in Afghanistan. But BEFORE they arrived in Kabul, the eight DEMOCRATIC lawmakers and their entourage of spouses and aides spent EIGHT DAYS IN ITALY! EIGHT DAYS! Sweet! And they spent more than $57,000 on HOTELS & MEALS! (Not counting the private government jet). In case you’re not keeping track, that comes to $901 PER DAY PER LAWMAKER.
Whats more, lets cut our senators tax funded health insurance! They should suffer with the rest of us! Then they might feel more compelled to help with the health care debate, rather than talk about big government spending. I mean, we the people pay more in health care than we do in taxes… coming up on 20% of our GDP to health care. Republicans are guilty of many of the same guilty pleasures too, if the government works for us, then should live like us too!
Libertarianism or bust.