I knew it!

Constitutional Convention?

SC Lieutenant Governor calls for Constitutional Convention to revoke Healthscare
Really long shot, but wouldn't it be amazing...

http://news.sc/2010/03/26/sc-lt-governor-andre-bauer-calls-for-convention-to-overturn-obama-healthcare/

Healthscare Can Be Defunded Over Veto

Think the Healthscare cannot be undone in face of Obama veto?
A mere majority can defund it.

Would Repubs actually do this if they take Congress? Probably not, IMHO. Power corrupts- when was the last time an entitlement was undone?  Welfare reform you might say? Truth is, the 'reform' part has since been undone. They would meddle about with it instead.

Amazon Filler Item Finder

Great idea
-------------------------------------

How To Ensure You Always Get Free Shipping On Amazon

Amazon’s offer of free shipping is a blessing and a burden. They’ll send your items at no extra cost, yes, but your basket of goods has to reach a certain price before you qualify.

And there’s nothing more annoying than being $1.29 short and buying a $15 DVD out of frustration to round out your order.
Moments like that one call for Amazon Filler Item Finder, an innovative tool that helps you find every item Amazon sells, listed by price.
The site is an exercise in simplicity.  Just enter the amount you’re short and you’ll see a list of products that match the price, starting from cheapest to more expensive.



http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=ea7544b086a8473bd90e4c1e3&id=805eec14cc&e=b93037bf0c

War on Fat is Making Us Sick!

Health Czars caught bare baked- one more reason we need to keep them out of our health (and diet) decisions.

Ultimately, saturated fat—named because it contains no double bonds, so all of its carbon atoms are saturated with hydrogen atoms—may be neutral for the heart. Meanwhile, some mono-unsaturated fats (which have one double-bond and are found in many nuts) and some poly-unsaturated fats (which have multiple double bonds and are found in fatty fish) could be good for the heart.

http://www.slate.com/id/2248754

Naked Nincompoops

"Without real, genuine, malevolent evil to fight against, we'd all be mindless nincompoops."

I don't know where I got this quote that I memorized years ago, or why I've always liked it, because it's not really accurate.

Most of us, unless we're with military, anti-terrorist or criminal justice forces, haven't had to fight real evil, at least directly — though our decisions as voters can make it easier or tougher for them. Most of us can keep mentally sharp by simply fighting those mindless nincompoops.

The tricky part is being able to tell the mindless nincompoops from the mindful manipulators. As a general guide, the latter are liberal politicians, and the former are the people who believe them when they say, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you."

Take the health care debate. One manipulator said that the government must take over health care because an uninsured woman is wearing her dead sister's dentures.

Nincompoops said, "That's awful!"

A thoughtful person might ask: "If we can use a dead person's heart, liver or cornea, why not her dentures?"

Manipulators always have scapegoats — someone to blame for their own failures or the things that normally go wrong in the course of an imperfect life.

Nincompoops mindlessly repeat the mantra, "The insurance companies and Big Pharma are killing people."

Those of us who have insurance companies paying for surgery, cancer treatments, and chronic disease-controlling drugs created by the drug companies, are somewhat grateful for our increased life expectancy.

A manipulator says that adding a new giant entitlement program, which not only expands health insurance and prescription drug coverage, but also adds long-term care to the almost bankrupt Medicare and Medicaid systems, will cut the deficit by a trillion dollars.

A nincompoop will buy that fanciful notion, along with the assurance that new taxes on investment income and payroll won't damage the already hurting economy.

A thoughtful person is worried about further expanding the national debt, and horrified by the addition of 16,500 new IRS employees to oversee the mandatory insurance program.

Manipulators also say that with more government involvement, our health insurance premiums will go down.

Surely no one believes that!

But when it doesn't happen, the liberal politicians will say it's because we don't have a single-payer system and will make their move for complete government takeover of our health insurance. And once they have that, they will own us. If we resist higher taxes on anything for any reason, or don't support raising the national debt ceiling again, we'll be told the only place to cut is our health care.

Nincompoops will believe that and beg for higher taxes and more debt.

One thing that nincompoops and thoughtful people may have in common is an inability to understand the real motives of many manipulators. Most of us just want to live our lives, finding happiness within ourselves, our relationships, our productive work and enjoyable pastimes. We don't easily comprehend that some people find their happiness in power and control.

We may recognize the problem of bullying in our schools, but fail to see it in our government.

Some liberals are simply deluded, believing that they do good by forcing others to pay for their good intentions.

We can all understand this and even excuse it, while resisting it by citing the law of unintended consequences. We can agree with many good ideas, while facing the reality that we can't afford their implementation until we first get a grip on our existing debt.

But other liberals have another agenda. It's often hard for good people to recognize low-level evil, the beginner evil that gets its little kicks from making us do what it wants.

When it's grown big enough to control us completely, nincompoops might finally recognize it; the rest of us work throughout our lives on prevention and containment.

Nincompoops make fun of patriots who protest Big Government, with signs expressing support for the U.S. Constitution and longstanding American values. The mindless aren't mindful of history; or they somehow believe that history's uglier lessons won't have to be learned here.

Our Founding Fathers knew better, and did their best to protect us from what some of them feared might be an inevitable decline in the freedoms they gave us.

In any case, my first concern upon the passage of ObamaCare last weekend was that the tea-party activists might get discouraged. But all across the Internet they are already sharing plans for the next battle with already battle-hardened activists.

I watched President Obama sign the health reform bill Tuesday. His supporters were cheering; and were those women doing a little chorus-line dance?

Some puzzled citizens have asked me why the president and Congress are congratulating themselves for doing what many Americans don't want.

I suspect the manipulators believe that most Americans — both those who oppose them, and those who blindly follow — are a bunch of nincompoops, and will allow these politicians all the power that they crave. I think they are wrong, at least about us opponents.

---

The comments made and opinions expressed in her columns are those of Barbara Anderson
and do not necessarily reflect those of Citizens for Limited Taxation.

---

-- More of Barbara's Columns --

Man Creates $747 Space Camera

Putting NASA to shame:

Putting NASA and its billion dollar budgets to shame, a British space enthusiast took amazing photos and video from space with just a few hundred dollars, a home camera and a balloon.

Robert Harrison spent a mere $747 dollars to take his photos and video from 22 miles above Earth's surface.
http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-balloon-home-photos-space,0,5393976.story

Healthscare Bill Creates New Army

 SEC. 203. COMMISSIONED CORPS AND READY RESERVE CORPS.

(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—There shall be in the Service a commissioned Regular Corps and a Ready Reserve Corps for service in time of national emergency.

(2) REQUIREMENT.—All commissioned officers shall be citizens of the United States and shall be appointed without regard to the civil-service laws and compensated without regard to the Classification Act of 1923, as amended.

(3) APPOINTMENT.—Commissioned officers of the Ready Reserve Corps shall be appointed by the President and commissioned officers of the Regular Corps shall be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.

(4) ACTIVE DUTY.—Commissioned officers of the Ready Reserve Corps shall at all times be subject to call to active duty by the Surgeon General, including active duty for the purpose of training.

(5) WARRANT OFFICERS.—Warrant officers may be appointed to the Service for the purpose of providing support to the health and delivery systems maintained by the Service and any warrant officer appointed to the Service shall be considered for purposes of this Act and title 37, United States Code, to be a commissioned officer within the Commissioned Corps of the Service.

(b) ASSIMILATING RESERVE CORP OFFICERS INTO THE REGULAR CORPS.—Effective on the date of enactment of the Affordable Health Choices Act, all individuals classified as officers in the Reserve Corps under this section (as such section existed on the day before the date of enactment of such Act) and serving on active duty shall be deemed to be commissioned officers of the Regular Corps.

(c) PURPOSE AND USE OF READY RESERVE.—

(1) PURPOSE.—The purpose of the Ready Reserve Corps is to fulfill the need to have additional Commissioned Corps personnel available on short notice (similar to the uniformed service’s reserve program) to assist regular Commissioned Corps personnel to meet both routine public health and emergency response missions.

(2) USES.—The Ready Reserve Corps shall—

(A) participate in routine training to meet the general and specific needs of the Commissioned Corps;

(B) be available and ready for involuntary calls to active duty during national emergencies and public health crises, similar to the uniformed service reserve personnel;

(C) be available for backfilling critical positions left vacant during deployment of active duty Commissioned Corps members, as well as for deployment to respond to public health emergencies, both foreign and domestic; and

(D) be available for service assignment in isolated, hardship, and medically underserved communities (as defined in section 399SS) to improve access to health services.

(d) FUNDING.—For the purpose of carrying out the duties and responsibilities of the Commissioned Corps under this section, there are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to the Office of the Surgeon General for each of fiscal years 2010 through 2014. Funds appropriated under this subsection shall be used for recruitment and training of Commissioned Corps Officers.

http://www.thetreeofliberty.com/vb/showpost.php?p=958482&postcount=2

Waiting for healthcare

Hopenchange 1775 Style

They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

— Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775

Corporate bonds yielding LESS than Treasuries

The market is betting that many corporations are more credit worthy than the Feds:

Two-year notes sold by the billionaire’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in February yield 3.5 basis points less than Treasuries of similar maturity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Procter & Gamble Co., Johnson & Johnson and Lowe’s Cos. debt also traded at lower yields in recent weeks, a situation former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. chief fixed-income strategist Jack Malvey calls an “exceedingly rare” event in the history of the bond market.
The $2.59 trillion of Treasury Department sales since the start of 2009 have created a glut as the budget deficit swelled to a post-World War II-record 10 percent of the economy and raised concerns whether the U.S. deserves its AAA credit rating. The increased borrowing may also undermine the first-quarter rally in Treasuries as the economy improves.

“It’s a slap upside the head of the government,” said Mitchell Stapley, the chief fixed-income officer in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at Fifth Third Asset Management, which oversees $22 billion. “It could be the moment where hopefully you realize that risk is beginning to creep into your credit profile and the costs associated with that can be pretty scary.”

http://seekingalpha.com/article/194790-all-roads-lead-through-healthcare

Healthscare is back!

Just watched the votes count up in the House. Sick to my stomach. Clearly bad for my health.

Oh, now Obama's on;  "A government of the people and by the people still works for the people"  say what? Bare naked, I tell you. "This is what change looks like". I'll take the status quo, thanks. Now he's bashing insurance companies again- how many times are you planning to spend their paltry 6% profit margin?

Let's just hope it hits some sort of technical snag in the Senate, because we are screwed.

Update:  Don Boudreaux states it well:

Watching tonight on television the charlatans who infest Pennsylvania Avenue gaudily pronounce their saintly motives and their deity-like powers to “guarantee world-class health care for every American” (as one creep put it to a NewsChannel 8 reporter here in DC) makes me want to vomit.
These people look like serious adults; the timber of their voices make them sound like serious adults; and their titles are ones that are assumed to be reserved for serious adults.  But, in fact, these people – from Obama to Pelosi to Hoyer to Reid – are nothing of the sort.

If they really believe even a quarter of the things they say, they’re imbeciles.  If they aren’t imbeciles, they’re scoundrels.  No third alternative is conceivable.

http://cafehayek.com/2010/03/venting-2.html

Outsourcing Space Travel

Looks like a promising trend- the space shuttle was cool, but poorly conceived from a cost-benefit standpoint.
The fact that we can pay to Russians a mere $15million per seat to hitch a ride to the space station shows how far out of whack the costs of operating the space shuttle were.
---------------------------------------------------

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Space Exploration Technologies successfully test fired its Falcon 9 rocket this weekend, clearing a milestone toward the inaugural flight of a privately developed spaceship to fly cargo, and possibly astronauts, into orbit, the company said.
Saturday's 3.5-second 'static' firing of the Falcon's nine kerosene and liquid oxygen-burning motors took place on a refurbished oceanside launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It followed an earlier firing test aborted last week due to an improperly configured valve....
...
SpaceX, owned and operated by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, already holds NASA contracts worth nearly $1.9 billion to develop and fly Falcon 9 rockets and Dragon capsules for space station cargo resupply missions.
Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp has NASA contracts of similar value for its Taurus II-Cygnus system, which is scheduled to debut next year.
SpaceX says it needs about three years to develop a launch escape system for Dragon and other upgrades to have Falcon 9 ready for passenger service....



http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100314/sc_nm/us_space_business

Is China Bankrupt?

Interesting- not what you normally hear... should we really be surprised if China cooks their books? I mean, what are you going to do, file a request under the Freedom of Information Act?
---------------------------------

Is China actually bankrupt?

The nation has erected a complex system for magically making its debts disappear, but a look up China's sleeve shows that its IOUs may equal its GDP.

By Jim Jubak
Is China broke?
All governments lie about their finances. At worst, as in Greece and the United States, the lies are bold and transparent. Everybody knows the emperor has no clothes, but no one wants to say so. At best, as in Canada and China, the lies are more subtle -- more like a magician's misdirection than a viking raider's ax. Look at these great numbers, the lie goes, but don't look at those up my sleeve.

There's a good argument to be made that if you look at all the numbers, instead of just the ones the budget magicians want you to see, China is indeed broke.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/JubaksJournal/is-china-actually-bankrupt.aspx

Bebo-Tax Code Encourages Destruction of Assets

AOL is likely to abandon Bebo, for which it overpaid, rather than sell it, due to tax incentives.
Just one more government structure that favors destruction of assets over preservation, production and prosperity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newly independent Aol is still struggling with the fate of Bebo, the social network they acquired for $850 million in 2008.
No one argues that Aol underpaid  [sic. overpaid] for Bebo. And the social network has fallen from 22 million monthly unique visitors when it was acquired to just 14.6 million today (Comscore worldwide). But even so, Bebo clearly has some value on the open market.
Despite that value, Aol’s best financial option for Bebo will likely be to abandon it rather than sell it, say corporate tax experts we’ve spoken with.
Here’s why – complicated corporate tax rules will let Aol write off the full purchase price of Bebo if they declare it worthless and abandon the asset. With Aol’s effective tax rate of around 45%, that’s $380 million and change in their pocket in taxes that they’d be able to avoid.
A sale of Bebo would almost certainly be less attractive. If someone were to pay them $100 million for the service, which is optimistic, Aol could still offset the remaining $750 million as a tax loss. But it could only apply against long term capital gains, and Aol doesn’t have any to offset against. They’d have to carry that loss forward and hope for future gains to offset it against.
One corporate tax attorney we spoke with wouldn’t discuss Aol specifically, but did confirm the logic of the approach. Bryan Smith, a partner at Perkins Coie, says “Without getting into any specific facts or companies, it will often be more attractive for a U.S. corporation to simply shut down a subsidiary and claim a deduction for the worthlessness of the stock against ordinary income instead of selling the stock at a distressed price and taking a capital loss, which may only offset capital gains.”
If Aol were to abandon Bebo they couldn’t pull any of the assets of the company back into Aol, say the experts we’ve spoken with. Otherwise it becomes a non-taxable liquidation. If Aol had debt or preferred stock on the books with Bebo, though, they could pull out assets to offset that liability.



http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/10/aol-bebo-tax-abaondon/

Dept of Education buying shotguns

 Hmmm. Militarization everywhere.

Added: Mar 08, 2010 10:39 am

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) intends to purchase twenty-seven (27) REMINGTON BRAND MODEL 870 POLICE 12/14P MOD GRWC XS4 KXCS SF. RAMAC #24587 GAUGE: 12 BARREL: 14" - PARKERIZED CHOKE: MODIFIED SIGHTS: GHOST RING REAR WILSON COMBAT; FRONT - XS CONTOUR BEAD SIGHT STOCK: KNOXX REDUCE RECOIL ADJUSTABLE STOCK FORE-END: SPEEDFEED SPORT-SOLID - 14" LOP are designated as the only shotguns authorized for ED based on compatibility with ED existing shotgun inventory, certified armor and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.


https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=cb68cf9f3fa2fe18a83d1c3dee0039b2&tab=core&_cview=0

Water Usage During US/Canada Hockey Final

This is geeky cool:

http://www.patspapers.com/blog/item/what_if_everybody_flushed_at_once_Edmonton_water_gold_medal_hockey_game/

Commercial Jetpack!

Want.   $86k

http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/10/martin-jetpack-priced-at-86-000-mere-mortals-will-soon-be-able/

Are Stocks Expensive?

http://seekingalpha.com/article/192868-are-stocks-expensive?source=email

Senate warns staffers to avoid Drudgereport

SENATE WARNS EMPLOYEES TO AVOID THE DRUDGE REPORT
Tue Mar 09 2010 08:53:37 ET

Just as the healthcare drama in the capitol reaches a grand finale, congressional officials are warning employees to avoid the DRUDGE REPORT!

The Senate's Committee on Environment and Public Works issued an urgent email late Monday claiming the DRUDGE REPORT is 'responsible for the many viruses popping up throughout the Senate.'

The committee ordered hill staff: 'Try to avoid' the DRUDGE REPORT 'for now'.

On Monday DRUDGE served over 29 million pages with NOT ONE email complaint received about 'pop ups', or the site serving 'viruses'.

The site was seen 149,967 times since March 1st from users at senate.gov and 244,347 times at house.gov. [10,825 visits from the White House, eop.gov]

The Systems Administrator may want to continue taking her antibiotic until the prescription runs out.

Developing... 


http://www.drudgereport.com/flashsd.htm

MI Six Year Old Suspended for bringing weapon to school

Fear not for your safety- the offending fingers have been impounded.

Ionia kindergartner suspended for making gun with hand

By Brian McVicar The Grand Rapids Press

March 04, 2010, 10:39PM

IONIA -- To the little boy's mother, it was just a 6-year-old boy playing around.
But when Mason Jammer, a kindergarten student at Jefferson Elementary in Ionia, curled his fist into the shape of a gun Wednesday and pointed it at another student, school officials said it was no laughing matter.
They suspended Mason until Friday, saying the behavior made other students uncomfortable, said Erin Jammer, Mason's mother.
School officials allege Mason had displayed this kind of behavior for several months, despite numerous warnings.
"I do think it's too harsh for a six-year-old," said Jammer, who was previously warned that if Mason continued the practice he would be suspended. "He's six and he just likes to play."
Jammer says her son isn't violent, and there are other, more effective ways of teaching him not to make a gun with his hand.
"Maybe what you could do is take his recess away," suggested Jammer, adding her son doesn't have toy guns at home.
"He's only six and he doesn't understand any of this."

Our top export? Fraud!

In real dollars (such as they are), our top export may be fraud!
Note the equivalence to counterfeiting, and the quote from an actual counterfeiter.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a rational explanation why the public still grants a great deal of validity to the opinions of people I like to call the “men who cried wolf” – Ben Bernanke, Timothy Geitner, Gordon Brown, Alan Greenspan, et al.
The explanation is that the fastest growing export of the Western banking industry is fraud. This is not to say that the eastern banking industry is not guilty of this same fraud. Off the top of my head and from what I have see in my travels through Asia, I can think of at least three real estate markets in the Pacific Rim region that are bubbles waiting to burst – New Zealand, Thailand, and Hong Kong. If you study the Central Banking monetary policies in these countries in recent years, their present real estate bubbles are undoubtedly the architectural accomplishment of their respective Central Banks as well. However, the roots of this global monetary crisis lie with the most influential Central Banks in the world that include the ECB, the Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve....

This from a convicted counterfeiter:

 "These ‘experts’ will tell you that the present difficulties are simply the result of abuses and excesses in a system that is basically sound. All that is required is for some faults to be corrected. Do not believe them. The reality is that the problem is systemic and a little tinkering here or there will achieve nothing in the long term. What is needed is a root-and-branch re‑evaluation of that most curious of cultural inventions, money: how it is created, how it circulates, and how it can best be used to serve the interests of the community.”....

This is a powerful statement that should lead the majority of the world’s citizens to engage in some serious introspection. There is more truth in that statement than any statement I’ve heard in the last decade issued by any global banker, politician, or the latest Nobel-prize winning economist with whom the media is enamored. If you take the time to understand how money is created, how it circulates, and how it can best be used to serve the interests of the community, I guarantee you will immediately question the integrity of every derivative of our monetary system from carbon credits and taxes to mortgages to credit cards. If a convicted felon understands more about how our monetary system operates than 99% of all Congressman and even Nobel laureates in economics, let alone the common citizen, then we need to not only question why this is, but we also need to ask the following question:

“Who controls [aka manufactures] the flow of information so expertly that we now have a grotesque imbalance between the understanding of reality and the acceptance of fantasy?”

http://seekingalpha.com/article/192440-fraud-the-western-banking-industry-s-fastest-growing-export?source=email

Let's all go to work for the Feds

This USA Today article shows salary descrepancies between Fed and private sector jobs. Casually mentioned, but not expounded upon when presenting the stats:

"These salary figures do not include the value of health, pension and other benefits, which averaged $40,785 per federal employee in 2008 vs. $9,882 per private worker, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis."

 Whoa  now- that makes all of the data that follows completely misleading. This means the lowest paying Fed job, Janitor, pays $70k equivalent (benefits exceed pay), and unless you are an Optometrist, you a probably better off on the Fed gravy train.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-04-federal-pay_N.htm

Paul for President

Good stuff here. The only man in Congress who consistently speaks truth to power presents a roadmap back to a Constitutional Republic.

My Plan for a Freedom President
How I would put the Constitution back in the Oval Office

If Congress failed to produce a budget that was balanced and moved the country in a pro-liberty direction, a constitutionalist president should veto the bill. Of course, vetoing the budget risks a government shutdown. But a serious constitutionalist cannot be deterred by cries of “it’s irresponsible to shut down the government!” Instead, he should simply say, “I offered a reasonable compromise, which was to gradually reduce spending, and Congress rejected it, instead choosing the extreme path of continuing to jeopardize America’s freedom and prosperity by refusing to tame the welfare-warfare state. I am the moderate; those who believe that America can afford this bloated government are the extremists.”
Unconstitutional government spending, after all, is doubly an evil: it not only means picking the taxpayer’s pocket, it also means subverting the system of limited and divided government that the Founders created.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul647.html

F-15s in Bavaria

This is just a great picture:

Bunning's Last Stand

A little late to get religion, but hey, the mist is lifting
---------------------------------
I have been serving the citizens of Kentucky for nearly 24 years in Washington. During that time I have been a member of both the House of Representatives and the United States Senate. I have taken thousands of votes in relation to spending the taxpayers' money. I will be the first one to admit that I have cast some bad votes during my tenure, and I wish I could have some of them back. For too long, both Republicans and Democrats have treated the taxpayers' money as a slush fund that does not ever end. At some point, the madness has to stop.

Over a month ago, Democrats passed and President Obama signed into law the "Pay-Go" legislation. It calls on Congress to pay for bills by not adding to our debt. It sounds like a common sense tool that would rein in government spending. Unfortunately, Pay-Go is a paper tiger. It has no teeth. I did not vote for the Democrats' Pay-Go legislation because I knew it was just a political dog-and-pony show to get some good press after some political setbacks. Since the Pay-Go rule was enacted, the national debt has gone up $244,992,297,448.11 (as of Wednesday, that is).

I have 40 grandchildren, and I want them to grow up in a country where they have all of the same opportunities I had as a child. I fear that they will not have those opportunities if Washington continues on its course of spending without paying for it. We are at over $12 trillion in debt. I know many Americans sit around their kitchen table and make the tough decisions. It is time for the politicians in Washington to do the same.
Jim Bunning is a Republican senator from Kentucky.



http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2010/03/column-why-i-took-a-stand-.html