Friday, November 5, 2010

Out of Control Government Spending & Waste; $200,000 for Capitol Hill Bottled Water?

Here is a great article by Chuck Norris which reveals that federal spending has skyrocketed since Obama has taken office and massive government waste.

By Chuck Norris:


The Congressional Budget Office just reported that in the past two years since President Barack Obama took office, federal spending is up 21.4 percent.


The national deficit was $1.29 trillion in 2010 (second to the $1.4 trillion in Obama's first year in office, 2009), which means that for every $1 the federal government spent this past year, it borrowed 37 cents of it!

The feds will tell you that their outrageous spending habits were necessary to pull our economy out of its recession. But would their same rationale justify the fact that the money Congress spends on itself has soared 89 percent over the past decade, more than three times the U.S. inflation rate?

It's true. In 2000, the feds spent $2.87 billion to run Capitol Hill. In fiscal year 2010, they almost doubled the amount, to an enormous $5.42 billion. From 2000-10, while inflation went up 26 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Capitol expenses went up 89 percent.

Were all those expenditures necessary to pull the economy out of a recession, too? Will the Obama administration again blame former President George W. Bush for its contemptible spending habits in its first two years?

According to Capitol News Connection and the congressional watchdog groups Sunlight Foundation and LegiStorm, here are just some of the itemized personnel costs of your legislative branch of government, including their comparative increases from 2000:

--Congress members' salaries and benefits: $126 million, up 23.5 percent.

--Expense allowances for Senate leaders: $180,000, up 99 percent.

--Senate officers: $178.98 million, up 99 percent.

--House leadership offices: $25.88 million, up 82 percent.

--Other House officers: $198.30 million, up 120 percent.

--Senators' personal offices: $422 million, up 75 percent.

--Representatives' personal offices: $660 million, up 62 percent.

--Architect of the Capitol salaries: $106.78 million, up 118 percent.

--Capitol Police salaries: $265.18 million, up 237 percent.

--Capitol Police general expenses: $63.13 million, up 860 percent.

Other items:

--Senate inquiries and investigations: $140.5 million, up 96 percent.

--Capitol grounds upkeep: $10.97 million, up 102 percent.

--Capitol building maintenance: $33.18 million (not listed separately in 2000).

--Senate office buildings: $74.39 million, up 16 percent.

--House office buildings: $100.46 million, up 169 percent.

--Capitol Visitor Center: $22.45 million (didn't exist in 2000).

--Congressional Budget Office: $45.16 million, up 72 percent.

--Government Accountability Office: $556.84 million, up 47 percent.

--Library of Congress: $446.15 million, up 73 percent.

--Congressional Research Service: $112.49 million, up 57 percent.

And if you don't think those costs are reflective of a nation in economic peril and government run amok, consider momentarily how critical these following costs are to running our country -- or are they?

--Since Democrat Nancy Pelosi took over the position of speaker of the House in January 2007, funding for her office soared 62 percent, from $2.9 million to $4.7 million. For a single office?!

--And taxpayers paid an enormous printing bill of $93.76 million, up 212 percent. (How many copies of the 1,000-plus-page Obamacare bill do you think that bought the feds? In a computer age of paperless transactions, don't you think they could save a few dollars here by learning what PDF files are?)

--According to the Sunlight Foundation, $4.28 million was spent on student loan repayments during the first quarter of this year as one of the congressional staff member employment perks.

--Pension costs continue to soar as congressional members enjoy the $60,000 annual benefit when they retire at age 62 after only having five years of congressional service. More than 400 former members receive average pensions of $60,000 a year.

--Taxpayers also forked out $3.27 million for Capitol Hill office supplies, as well as $628,332 for food. In addition, we spent $51.05 million on electricity and $4.63 million on sewer and water services in the Capitol building.

--And that water bill doesn't include the bottled water, which the House offices alone spent nearly $200,000 on during just the first quarter of 2010!

Friends, this next election fight is not for the weak at heart. Those elected next will either plummet our country into a fiscal abyss by maintaining the present course or deliver our economy from utter ruin by turning sharply to avoid economic disaster.

If our country is to survive, we must elect only those who show proof of fiscal discipline, refuse under all circumstances to increase our national deficit, disdain special interests, are willing to radically cut spending, and commit to pass and live under a constitutional amendment for a balanced budget. (Please join the movement to pressure Congress to do so, by signing BBA Now's petition for a Common Sense Balanced Budget Amendment. And for a voter guide detailing where candidates in your state stand on issues, go to http://www.ChristianVoterGuide.com.)

With the present elective battle at hand, I call upon the great battalion of patriots to get out and vote Nov. 2 in the same spirit in which George Washington admonished his army in 1776: "The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are Freemen, fighting for the blessings of Liberty -- that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men."

Hopefully the constitutional conservatives we voted in office on November 2 will nip this out of control spending & waste in the bud.

(I also encourage everyone to check out the trailers to two new patriotic films playing near you, "I Want Your Money" and "Battle for America.")

Here is the trailer for the movie Battle for America:




H/T TownHall

15 comments:

Opus #6 said...

I love the "general expenses" category. I think I could fit my whole life in there.

Quite Rightly said...

Imagine how high those office and printing expenses would be if Congress could read. . . .

Tony said...

"...second to the $1.4 trillion [debt] in Obama's first year in office, 2009..."

Oops! The 2009 budget was submitted in October 2008 by the previous president, so actually Obama has reduced the deficit 9% from $1.41 trillion to $1.29 trillion.

Since Mr. Norris massaged the very first *fact* in his diatribe, I'll question all his other *facts* as well.

Are copying these rants fun for you?

Woodsterman (Odie) said...

The fight continues !

Teresa said...

Opie,

That is a pretty hefty sum of money in the "general expenses" category. I think quite a few families could live off of that money quite comfortably.

Teresa said...

Quite Rightly,

Maybe the costs would be higher if Congress could actually read. Not sure about that though.

Amusing Bunni said...

I Teresa! Chuck Norris is great, Thanks for posting.
What a perfect disgrace this spending is.
Bo's hag has like 20,000 personal assistants. We could wipe out the nat'l debt if we reigned her in, not to mention all the vacations every other week.

What lyin thieving scums, We can barely afford the dollar menu at Wendy's, and these criminals are spending so fast they have to print new money.

Anyway, enjoy your weekend and celebrate out wins.
TTYL

Fuzzy Slippers said...

This is seriously messed up. I remember last hearing about Pelosi spending hundreds of thousands on flowers, too. Imagine! I tweeted this, it's got to get around, and this wasteful crap must stop. They're so used to dealing with trillions (that we don't have) that they don't care about anything less than that. But it adds up. Obviously.

Teresa said...

Odie,
Yes it does. We will reboot, become energized and stronger than ever.

Teresa said...

Amusing Bunni,

Chuck Norris is one of my favorites. Obama & Company's out of control spending or generational theft must stop. Hopefully, those newly GOP members who were elected on Tues will reign in spending starting next year.

You also enjoy your weekend :) Celebrate and rejoice for we have won at least one battle.

God Bless!

Teresa said...

Fuzzy Slippers,

Yes, this out of control spending is messed up. It certainly does add up. This type of spending needs to be reversed and in a jiffy. Thank you for tweeting this. Have a relaxing weekend.

Teresa said...

Tony,

"Oops! The 2009 budget was submitted in October 2008 by the previous president, so actually Obama has reduced the deficit 9% from $1.41 trillion to $1.29 trillion."

Link and proof?

Obama has actually helped to quadruple the deficit.

Tony said...

Here's the reference on the decrease in budget deficit (remember Bush wrote the 2009 budget which had a 1.41 trillion dollar deficit-- the worst in our history).

Did Amusing Bunni actually refer to the First lady as "Bo's hag"?

Ick. The factual inaccuracies are bad enough, but the lack of civility is too much for me.

Good-bye. Enjoy your little echo chamber by yourselves.

Fuzzy Slippers said...

Actually, Tony, the worst budget deficit in our nation's history is 2010's, and that was far surpassed and we had to raise our debt ceiling once already to accommodate it. Another raise in the debt ceiling is coming up to accommodate that 2010 budget deficit. As you must know, there is no 2011 budget as yet. The dems were too afraid to do one before the midterms, so we can only imagine what a horror show that will be (but we do already know it includes, in draft form, crazy invented revenues from things like cap and tax which don't exist).

The echo chamber line is fine, but you do know that's a leftist mantra and a result of the lefts' own echo chamber, right? It's the left who won't permit divergent views, not the right (look at Andrew Breitbart and the ABC controversy, look at Juan Williams, loot at anyone who dares to try and express any idea, opinion, or fact that doesn't support the moonbat lunacy).

Tony said...

"... the worst budget deficit in our nation's history is 2010's..."

You're just plain wrong. You need to read the reference above, or any reference (CBO, BLS, anything) regarding the budgets from 2008-2010. Facts are stubborn things. The 2011 budget estimates a further drop in deficits.

Jobs are improving, but the economy will remain sluggish for a while. To wit:

A stock market collapse, caused by the bursting of a technology bubble, triggered a mild recession in 2001. That recovery started even more slowly than the 2009-2010 version. And it didn't replace all the jobs that had been lost for nearly four years.

The 2008 financial crisis was the most destructive of all, which helps explain why the economy has remained so weak since the recession ended.


But I suppose it's easier to accept the narrative that it's all Obama's fault; after all, he was the junior Senator from Illinois at that time. Obama, Obama, Obama. Please don't bother with entertaining any complexity to the narrative.

It's the left who won't permit divergent views, not the right...

It's really hard to remain patient with such blather. Do you really believe that? It's healthy to get out and hear divergent views; a functional democracy depends on an educated electorate. Educate yourselves.