Broken Government, Part 1

I've been voraciously reading books concerning Government, the history of our Government and the type of people that eventually make up our Government. It's obvious that the U.S. Gov't is broken and has been for some 75+ years now. It's become the big, controll-all type of Gov't that we originally fought to get rid of in the American Revolution!

One interesting book I've been reading is To Save America: How to Prevent Our Coming Federal Bankruptcy by Martin L. Buchanan. You can read it online for free on Wowio. Mr. Buchanan has a pretty interesting plan on how to save a trillion dollars a year (that's right, a trillion), restructure Gov't and get the country out of debt. I found only one problem with Mr. Buchanan's plan.

It's not realistic.

Martin Buchanan's plan hinges upon one fantasy; that the Gov't will change. The U.S. Gov't operates under a system and the "system" is repeated in perpuity until something drastic happens. I guess the easiest way to explain it is their motto isn't "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" but "Wait until it breaks, THEN we'll fix it." Of course, money also has a lot to do with it.

Mr. Buchanan proposes doing away with farm subsidies. We, the people, are led to believe that farm subsidies help the poor, small, struggling Farmer. I'm sure some of it does. MOST of it probably goes to the larger farms, owned by Corporations, who, in turn, give that money back to that State's Representatives in the form of lobby money. The Reps turn around and get more subsidy money for the large farms and the vicious circle begins anew. So, you see, to change the "System", Gov't Reps would lose money and that just isn't going to happen.

Well, until the United States go bankrupt. Then it might happen.

Another interesting little book is the 2007 Congressional Pig Book Summary, which summarizes all the pork barrel spending for 2007. It's put together by the Citizens Against Government Waste. The 2008 book has just come out as well.

2007 was a good year for taxpayers as pork projects and money had some of the lowest totals in a decade. Unfortunately, the Government Reps came back with a vengeance in 2008 and recorded their 2nd highest total in projects and spending.

The thing about earmarks and pork is that Reps put earmarks for a project under Agriculture or Homeland Security and that project has absolutely nothing to do with Agriculture or Homeland Security. The amounts are obscene. So, where does the money go if not all to the project? No one seems to be asking that question. Except me, of course. I would assume that once that Fed money hits the state, a few dollars are thrown at the project and the rest is kept by the state to be spent on whatever. Probably the Governor's salary and electric bill.

I like the CAGW web site because you can check on your state's Rep and Senator's on where they rank in requesting pork. My Rep Rosa DeLauro, ranks 49th. Pretty high up. The Senators of CT are no better. Lieberman ranks 44th. Dodd 54th.

Just for kicks I looked up the 3 front runners for President. Hilary Clinton ranked 13th, adding 281 projects totalling over 296 million dollars! Barack Obama ranks 70th, adding 53 projects and over 97 million dollars. John McCain? Dead last. 0 projects for 0 dollars.

Interesting...