Here’s a perfect example of government waste and how, as it so often does, it applies to the inefficiencies of both political parties, Mr. Raisman.
On July 22, the first day of the shutdown by the federal government of the Federal Aviation Administration, thousands of employees were prevented from reporting to work. And guess what job many of them had? It was their duty to collect the federal taxes on airline tickets — which total about $30 million a day.
We could argue the merits and demerits of the shut down for years, but the bottom line is that because of it, our government lost a lot of money.
United States Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood blamed this unfortunate situation on a “dysfunctional Congress.”
There are many people in the United States that point fingers at the elected officials on both sides of the aisle in our nation’s capitol. They want a reduction in taxes, limited government spending, less earmarks, a simplification of our tax system, a repeal of the healthcare law passed in March of 2010, and an audit of every federal agency for waste and constitutionality. Who are these people?
They call themselves the TEA party, with the name coming from an event in Boston 238 years ago. The letters standing for Taxed Enough Already. I have attended many TEA party rallies where I have rubbed elbows with Americans from all walks of life. From physicians to plumbers, accountants to actors, carpenters to cops — good, old-fashioned patriotic Americans that do not want to see this nation become a socialist empire akin to those going down the drain in Europe.
Current polls on the popularity of the movement are all over the map. You can point to the one that shows 56 percent of America disagreeing with the party, but I just saw a poll where a mere seven percent think they were the losers in the recent debt situation.
But the only poll that really matters is the one taken on Election Day.
Members of the TEA Party (myself included) have been called racists. That didn’t hold. Then we were Nazis. Sure.
I loved it when guests on Chris Matthews show called us thugs. Hey, Chris. Do you want to talk about thugs? Can you show me where any TEA party rally in the United States did as much damage as the schoolteachers did in Wisconsin? And now, because many of us did not want to see the debt ceiling raised, we are terrorists. Terrorists?
“Heck if we were real domestic terrorists, President Obama would be wanting to pal around with us, wouldn’t he?” This was asked by Sarah Palin in a reference to the President’s association with Bill Ayers.
My favorite comment came from Bernie Goldberg who wrote “the same liberal journalists who won’t call a real terrorist a terrorist can’t go 10 seconds without calling conservative Republicans terrorists.”
OK, my colleagues on the left. If the Republicans that voted against the increase in the debt ceiling are terrorists, what do you call the Democrats that voted the same way?
Blaming the TEA party for the downgrade in the credit rating is like blaming the firemen who are called to extinguish the fire. You lose your credit when you no longer have manageability and spend a lot more than you should. You hear that, Chuck?
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Here’s more for your collection of waste in government. The Feds gave $650,000 of our taxes to North Carolina for “beaver management.” Hey, Mr. Raisman. I was always under the impression that fees for local and state hunting and fishing licenses are collected for that sort of thing. I am [email protected] promising you more next week.
