Congress still spending like crazy, and taxpayers will fund the spree

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), speaking about HR 2454, also called 'Cap and Trade,' told former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, "You gotta' have some threat sometimes..." Waxman was talking about the burden of energy taxes for Americans.As Democrats controlling the U.S. Congress seek creative ways to tax Americans to pay for expanding welfare and funding Cap and Trade [HR 2454], they’ve been on a spending spree. Congress was happy to accept automatic pay raises. They’ve increased “official” travel –for example, to Galapagos to “study global warming”—and they’ve even increased their $1.3 million discretionary accounts by $93,000 per member. This Congress boosted each lawmaker’s office budget by 8 percent, part of legislation “to head off a government shutdown,” said Real Clear Politics.

The rest of us are seeing pay cuts and lost jobs. Small businesses are hysterically struggling just to hang on. Congress fiddles while taxpayer money burns.

Why did Congress have to pass the anti-shutdown legislation? RCP said, “The one-month stopgap spending measure is needed because Congress has failed to complete work on any of the 12 annual spending bills for agency budgets that it passes each year.”

Aside from investigating the prior administration, Congress has been preoccupied with crafting a variety of healthcare “reform” bills and sculpting a more than 1,000 page Cap and Trade bill none of them read. I prefer the term ‘Cap  and Raid,’ because of what HR 2454 and whatever it morphs into once the Senate finishes, if passed, will do to the personal economy of every American.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), never heralded as a fountain of common sense, told an environmental publication, “I don't know what 'cap and trade' means. I don't think the average American does…This is not a cap-and-trade bill, it's a pollution reduction bill.” The New York Times reported the comment in a story related to global warming legislation. The Environmental Protection Agency, drunk on victory via a Supreme Court ruling declaring carbon emissions a pollutant, has taken to calling their efforts “climate change” instead of “global warming,” by the way. That’s because experts have shot holes in Gore’s logic. Somebody tell Europe and China. Spain already figured it out.

Sidenote: somebody should tell Kerry to push a global tree planting bill, one endorsing fast growing species.  That would be the single greatest asset for pollution reduction, but then again, planting trees is a little too simple for Congress to grasp.

Meanwhile Congress is pushing class warfare, touting new taxes on the “rich”—who will define that category, by the way? We’re repeatedly reminded we must sacrifice, and the statists among us want all to worship at the collectivist altar.

During testimony for the economy-crippling HR 2454, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) told former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, "Mr. Gingrich, I’m sure glad you’re not in charge of foreign policy! Do you think the only way to incentivize a country is by offering them more and more carrots? You gotta have some threat sometimes—you have to say to incentivize you, we’re going to give you some assistance, but there are going to be consequences."

By the by, none of this can be laid at the feet of former president George W. Bush. Dems own the current economy, the war and spending right now. Tell your friends and neighbors.

There was a singular moment, however, during Gingrich’s testimony as Congress debated the Cap and Trade bill. Gingrich was there because Democrats refused to permit a distinguished expert to testify. The expert just happens to disagree with the global warming dogma of former vice president Al Gore.

Listening to Waxman’s negativity towards Main Street, Gingrich said, “Mr. Chairman, I don’t think of American citizens the way I think of foreign dictators, and I don’t think this Congress should punish the American people. I think this Congress has every right to reward the American people, but I don’t think Lincoln’s government of the people, by the people and for the people should be turned into a government punishing the people, and I think that’s a major difference."

Gingrich’s response shows the difference between a statesman and a political elitist.

At the moment, political elitists are running our government. And it comes as no surprise they’re still spending like crazy, and the expense to the taxpayer can be traced in a straight line right back to Congress where Dems reign supreme. Remember that when you head for the polls in 2010.--Kay B. Day