My Polka Dot Apron

You are not logged in. Would you like to login or register?



May 19, 2018 11:39 pm  #1


WHY doesn't anyone ever listen to this man?

President Trump could learn a lot from him but apparently he doesn't want to learn any more than the  CONgresscreeps want to learn.  I'm shocked!!  You mean they could be "REPAIRING" something in WADC and instead they ignore it?  Well, whaddaya know.  Who knew?  (spoiler: lots of people know, just not the idiots in CONgress who already make too much money and aren't about to stop wasting yours and mine).

Here's a piece written by Rand Paul and I copied it from a newsletter I get.  There was no link so I had to copy the whole thing, but I'm hoping the embedded links are useable.  Let me know if they are not, ok?

*********************************

Rand Paul Forces Senate on the Record on a Balanced Budget

It's no secret that spending is out of control in Washington, and I have spoken out my entire time in the Senate against waste, growing debt, and fiscal irresponsibility.  
I have also worked hard to prove it doesn't have to be this way by introducing budgets that would put an end to the recklessness.  In April, I introduced my latest such piece of legislation - a "Penny Plan" budget that would balance in five years without touching Social Security.  My plan simply requires Congress to cut 1% in federal spending each year for five years - and Congress would have full flexibility to decide where to cut!I also put instructions into my budget that would pave the way for the expansion of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) to help lower your health care costs.In an op-ed for The Hill this week, I looked at the resistance fiscal restraint has met in Washington, noting, "Republicans love the symbolism of balancing budgets.  In the abstract, they fully believe themselves to be fiscally conservative, and when challenged they say: 'But at least we’re not as bad as the Democrats.'  Maybe.  It is true that few if any Democrats support budget caps or balanced budgets.  But being less bad is hardly admirable."

"This week," I continued, "I will offer a redemptive vote for any Republicans - or Democrats - who want to really vote to balance the budget."  (You can read the rest HERE or watch a video version HERE.) And that's exactly what I did!  Thanks to special Senate rules that allow any senator to offer a budget if Senate leadership and the Budget committee do not report out a budget by April 1, I offered my budget as a privileged motion - meaning the Senate had to take a vote. On Thursday morning, I took to the Senate floor to remind my fellow senators that it is your money they are spending - and to urge them to get serious about how they use it.

If you reward government agencies with more money, you're never going to get less waste," I pointed out.  I went on to ask, "Does anybody in America think that government couldn't do with one percent less?"  I believe cutting even this amount each year would help make us a stronger nation. Our government is actually borrowing more than a million dollars a minute, and that number will only keep getting larger if we don't take action.  The spending status quo is not only irresponsible, but it greatly threatens our national security.

To help illustrate how easily government could reduce its spending, I cited several examples of waste, including spending tens of millions of dollars on a hotel in Afghanistan that not only remains unfinished and uninhabitable eleven years later but now poses a security risk to our Embassy personnel.  Government officials are even talking about selling it to another department of government - the State Department - to just tear down!There has also been millions of dollars in brand-new, never-used equipment destroyed in Afghanistan, a process my staff personally observed when they went there last month, with millions more in heavy equipment gone missing!  We've also spent taxpayer dollars to study if taking selfies makes you happier, whether Japanese quail are more sexually promiscuous on cocaine, what Neil Armstrong said on the moon - and more! Shortly before the vote, I said that "the bottom line is whether the debt is threatening our national security, whether it’s threatening the security and the economic foundation of our country, and I think without question it is.  This vote is a litmus test for conservatives.  Are you a conservative?  Do you think we can cut one penny out of every dollar?  I think it is a conservative notion that we have long said we are for.  Now it’s time to step up to the plate and actually vote what you say you stand for."  (You can watch my first floor speech HERE and my follow-up speech HERE.)

When the result was tallied, 20 senators stood with me to get Congress' spending under control, while 76 senators voted to continue trillion-dollar deficits.  The big-spending status quo is deeply entrenched in Washington, but now the Senate has been put on the record on balancing the budget.  The fight to restore common sense in Congress continues, and I will keep leading the charge!

*************************************


As far as I can see the biggest problem is that Rand makes it sound to those other senators as if it's ONLY taxpayer money they are spending, so they think it's no big deal.  After all spending other people's money is easy - just ask ANY senator about that.  If Rand made it sound more like it's THEIR money their giving away, it might hit a little closer to home and they might actually hear what he's saying the way he means for them to hear it.

This is the problem with CONgress - - when they feel they are "ONLY" spending other people's money, they don't give a red rat's ass.
   


A government which robs Peter to
pay Paul can always depend on
the support of Paul.
-- George Bernard Shaw
 

Board footera

 

Powered by Boardhost. Create a Free Forum