A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman thinks of the next generation. ~James Freeman Clarke, Sermon

There are always too many Democratic congressmen, too many Republican congressmen, and never enough U.S. congressmen. 

~Author Unknown

Good Morning from Harmony Acres. Now ya'll know that I'm not a politically motivated radical chick, but holy cow, if I ran my household budget like politicians run our country, we'd be homeless, hungry and naked!  And these people get perks out the wazoo for their incompetence!  What we (the little people) have to pay big bucks for or more often than not, have to do without; these people get for free!  For example:  401k and health benefits and then there's the:

Fun Money: The base salary for a member of Congress is $174,000. But all members enjoy access to a separate piggy bank known as their "allowance." This funding generally goes toward maintaining their offices and building up a legislative entourage. In the House, representatives are allowed to spend more than $900,000 on salaries for up to 18 permanent employees. They get about a quarter-million dollars more for office expenses, including travel, and additional funding for a well-known congressional perk known as "franking." Franking is the term for the mass constituent mail sent out by members of Congress and paid for courtesy of the taxpayer. 

Senators enjoy the same privilege but get a much bigger allowance for their office expenses. According to a Congressional Research Service report, the average allocation for fiscal 2010 was more than $3.3 million. Personnel money varies depending on how big of a state a senator represents -- a senator from New York is going to get more than a senator from Montana. But for starters, each senator is given a $500,000 budget to hire up to three legislative assistants. 

Readmore:http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/29/benefits-members-congress-shabby/#ixzz1UbDXQEIq

"We the people" are in big trouble because "they, our elected officials" can't stop acting like spoiled children and be mature enough to reach a "reasonable" compromise (has common sense left the room in Washington, D.C.?).  Is winning the political fight more important than winning the battle for the American people?  Ya'll need to remember who you represent!  You folks need to get your act together and do what's right for the citizens of this United States of America.  Stop pointing fingers at who caused the problem and just work on fixing it!  Even I am tired of your bull!

I rarely agree with Tom Coburn on anything. However; in his report on wasteful spending by the government, I must side with him because my common sense hasn't taken a holiday. Here is a partial list:

Examples of wasteful spending highlighted in "Wastebook 2010" include:

• When it was built by the Corps of Engineers, Optima Lake in Hooker, OK was heralded as a future oasis for residents of the Oklahoma Panhandle. Despite the construction of a large dam and related facilities, no lake ever formed. That has not stopped the Army Corps of Engineers from announcing over $172,000 worth of property improvements for the lake.
• The city of Las Vegas has received a $5.2 million federal grant to build the Neon Boneyard Park and Museum, including $1.8 million in 2010. For over the last decade, Museum supporters have gathered and displayed over 150 old Las Vegas neon signs, such as the Golden Nugget and Silver Slipper casinos.
• The National Science Foundation provided more than to $200,000 to study of why political candidates make vague statements.
• The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) spends $175 million every year to maintain hundreds of buildings it does not use, including a pink, octagonal monkey house in Dayton, Ohio.
• Medicare paid out over $35 million to a vast network of 118 "phantom" medical clinics, allegedly established by members of a criminal gang to submit phony reimbursement claims.
• The Government Printing Office (GPO) is using a "video game space mouse" (and nearly $60,000 in taxpayer funds) to teach children the history of printing.
• In July, nearly half a million taxpayer dollars went to the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna, where wine tasting and castle tours were among the events planned for the conference participants.
• The Internal Revenue Service paid out $112 million in undeserved tax refunds to prisoners who filed fraudulent returns, according to the Treasury Department's Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).
• The National Science Foundation directed nearly a quarter million dollars to a Stanford University professor's study of how Americans use the Internet to find love.
• The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) took the term "cold case" to a new level in 2010. The agency spent over $20,000 in taxpayer money "to unravel the anonymity of a 2,500-year-old mummy."
• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) spent nearly $442,340 million to study the number of male prostitutes in Vietnam and their social setting.
• This year, taxpayers forked over $60,000 for the "first-of-its kind" promotion of the Vidalia onion in conjunction with the movie, Shrek Forever After. "
• The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded over $600,000 to the Minnesota Zoo to create a wolf "avatar" video game called "WolfQuest."
• A $700,000 federal grant paid for researchers to examine "greenhouse gas emission from organic dairies, which are cause by cow burps, among other things."

Am I the only one that wants to barf after reading this list?  And we pay these people good money to make obviously stupid decisions!  Clearly, lobbyist should be banned from speaking with the intellectually challenged politicians on capitol hill!  If we took all the money wasted by our government and divided it among every U.S. citizen, we could all be walking in tall cotton.  Guys and Gals, this is not a game of monopoly being played with fake money, fake real estate and fake icons.  We are real people with real homes trying to work for real money.  We don't have to wait for some foreign nation to destroy us!  We are doing it for them, from within! I don't want excuses! I want results!  And if nothing else influences you to do the right thing, then just remember, there will always be another election and people like me can't wait to vote you out!