Government: Spending Your Money So You Don't Have To

You'd think people would be a little bit more financially savvy in this down economy, right? Or that government would, for a change, start spending wisely. Wasn't that their whole motto? Responsible government?

It wasn't that long ago when the CEOs of the big three automakers (GM, Ford, and Chrysler) were berated on Capital Hill for using their corporate jets to fly from Detroit to DC. At the time, Congress was trying to figure out the best way to financially bail them out to the tune of billions, yet each automaker spent tens of thousands by using their own corporate jet. The WaPo writer likened it to this: showing up at a soup kitchen in a tuxedo. And that's exactly what it was. Wasteful corporate spending. The CEOs didn't fly a commercial flight or even jet-pool together to get to DC. They were verbally impaled by congressional criticism for this lavish oversight. And rightly so.

So why isn't anyone saying anything when the government is equally wasteful? They've allocated about $1 TRILLION worth of taxpayers' money to bail out corporations and they're STILL exhibiting the spending habits of an annoying shopaholic.

Exhibit A: Nancy Pelosi. Why does the Speaker of the House need to go to Italy? What part of her job description deals with international affairs? Why does she need to meet with the Pope? Why does she need to spend a week racking up hotel bills? Why did she have to bring seven other Democrats? Of course this was all funded by the US taxpayer. As if we had any money left. I can't afford a week-long Italian vacation! And Nancy gets to go on my dime. I hope she drank a lot of Peroni and then puked in the Trevi Fountain. Because that's what I would've done on my trip to Rome.