Ridiculous Spending

From Michelle Malkin:

GOP Sen. Tom Coburn releases a new pork report this morning on "The Worst Waste of the Year."

"As we look back on federal spending for 2008, American taxpayers will laugh, and then cry at how their elected officials spent their hard-earned dollars. Not even these tough economic times have dulled Congress' ability to find new and creative ways to waste taxpayer dollars," Dr. Coburn said.

Examples of waste in 2008 include:

• $188,000 for Lobster Institute in Maine, home of the "LobsterCam"
• $1 million for bike paths on Louisiana levees while levees await basic repairs
• $2.4 million for a retractable shade canopy at a park in West Virginia
• $24.6 million for the National Park Service's 100th year birthday in 2016 - 8 years early
• $3.2 million on a blimp the Pentagon does not want
• $367,000 wasted by a Texas school board on items like an inflatable alligator and under-the-sea waterslide, among other things
• $5 million for a bridge to a zoo parking lot in St. Louis
• $9,000 for a non-functioning airplane-shaped gas station in Tennessee
• $300,000 for specialty potatoes for high-end restaurants

"The waste highlighted in this report is only a fraction of the more than $385 billion the federal government throws away every year through waste, fraud and duplication.

Of course, this all looks like a pittance compared to Crap Sandwich and every other bailout effort over the past year now totaling more than $7 trillion.

America, the profligate, from sea to shining sea.

Does anyone doubt the desperate need to kick out about 90% of Congress and put in some people who understand what fiscal responsibility is?  The amazing thing to me is that, election after election, the very same people who complain about Congress sucking continue to vote for the same incumbents who cause all these problems.  The change that America really needs right now is for an educated and informed electorate (you and me and everyone we know) to boot out all fiscally irresponsible Senators and Reps, and replace them with people who still comprehend responsibility and accountability.  If that happens, this country will turn around almost overnight.

Keep that in mind over the next two years, as we continue to see economic meltdowns, bailouts, higher taxes, and ridiculous spending.  You know it'll happen.  Now you know how to fix it in 2010.

There's my two cents.