Where, oh where do my tax dollars go!

TRACKSIDE © by John D’Aloia Jr.

September 24, 2002

Where, oh where do my tax dollars go! This line has not been used for a while, but during a political campaign season, it is time to once again give thought to how politicians squander your money in their quest for power.

Members of Congress gave themselves a $5,000 raise this session.

They gave themselves the raise by doing nothing.

In 1989, Congress passed a law that handed future congressmen, without taking a vote, an automatic yearly pay increase based on a complicated formula that takes into account who knows what.

They could, of course, have voted to refuse the pay raise. Their silence tells it all. Only one congressman spoke up against the pay raise; a procedural vote prevented any such amendments to the bill containing the pay raise.

They accepted the raise with not even a moment’s debate on the propriety of it all while the nation’s economy struggles and the war on terrorism is in progress.

Is it not nice to be able to set your own salary, especially when you do not even have to go on record with a vote to make it happen. All those tax slaves out there will gladly pony up the bucks to keep you operating in the style in which you have become accustomed.

Speaking of terrorism - in the world of pork spending, the war to many elected officials is nothing but an opportunity to hide within the defense budget dollars funneled to home-town projects and narrow interest groups.

What a neat covering for their redistribution of the nation’s resources, your tax dollars, for their own aggrandizement. They can wrap themselves in the flag and brag that they voted for increased defense dollars, neglecting to tell you that in fact they have absconded with vital defense dollars for largess that has absolutely nothing to do with national defense.

Hypocrites. Third-class mandarins.

"Defense Watch" reported that buried within the $393 billion defense bill for 2003 were such critical defense projects as $950,000 for the "Institute for Tribal Government," $22 million for the Hawaii Federal Health Care Network, $4 million for a civilian research and education center for Acadia National Park, $5 million for a new road in northern Virginia, and $5 million for the D-Day museum in New Orleans.

Each one of these slabs of pork were inserted in the bill by a senator serving on a committee responsible for giving our troops what they need to defend the nation.

Each one sent your tax dollars to his home state.

Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) was quoted as saying the bill provided an "unprecedented level of funding for current training and operations."

Unprecedented?

"Defense Watch" pointed out that when adjustments for inflation were taken into consideration, the $393 billion was significantly less than the $595 billion spent in 1945 (WWII,) the $509 billion spent in 1951 (Korea,) the $425 billion in 1968 (Viet Nam,) and the $461 billion in 1985 (peacetime.)

Today we are spending less than we have in periods of international war and tension and expecting more from the military.

"Defense Watch" also pointed out that the funding boondoggles actually cut deep into military readiness because all the pork was covered by a $1 billion reduction in the fund that pays for training, weapons maintenance, base repairs, exercises, spare parts, and combat operations.

Mr. Congressman, just where do your priorities lie, defending our nation or buying votes?

Outrageous spending forced upon the nation and taxpayers in the face of economic problems and attempts to carry the war to Jihadistanis is not limited to congressmen on defense-related committees.

It is an across-the-board problem.

The Heritage Foundation asked the question "Can Congress be Embarrassed into Ending Wasteful Pork-Barrel Spending?"

Among the many examples they cited: $500,000 for the Fort Union Trading Post Bike Trail in North Dakota, $2 million to the Center on Obesity at West Virginia University, $250,000 for infrastructure upgrades to the Lesbian and Gay Services Center in New York, $150,000 for Therapeutic Horseback Riding in Apple Valley, California, and $200,000 for the restoration of the Iao Theater in Wailuku Town, Hawaii.

The answer to the Foundation’s question came from the Staff Director of the House Appropriations Committee: "It is unrealistic for the Office of Management and Budget to ask members to stop trying to win projects for their districts and help themselves get reelected."

A translation: "no way, who cares about the taxpayers, who cares about terrorists."

A direct answer that illustrates the scope of the problem - the wide-spread activation of the political gene and the integrity deficit in our elected representatives.

See you Trackside.