Take The Check Book Away

President Obama is poised to sign landmark legislation on the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birthday. The Economic Stimulus Bill finally cleared the House and Senate and passed conference to iron out the differences. The grand total is $787 billion and change. The entire bill encompasses 1100 fun-filled pages.

By the way, has anyone read the entire 1100 pages front to back? In the immortal words of my freshman English teacher, will the first, last and only people to read this bill be its authors? Does that scare anyone else but me? President Obama pledges transparency in how this bill is spent, but I don't feel 1100 pages really define transparent. A lot of trickery can be hidden within 1100 pages. Are Pelosi and Reid going for an "A" on this bill by shear weight alone? Whatever happened to "explain your position in 500 words or less?"

Can you imagine the money we could save if Congress had not just term limits, but word limits? The average citizen might be tempted to read Congressional legislation if the bills were just a few pages front to back. We wouldn't need Congressional watchdogs. You could review the Congress' work after dinner and before you put the kids to bed.

I don't question the urgency President Obama laid out to the American people in his press conference. Actually, I'm impressed that Congress was able to do something in the first 30 days of President Obama's administration. 30 days is a split second when it comes to Congressional action which usually makes molasses look like quicksilver.

I wonder if our revered Speaker (hold your chuckles, please) likes the taste of crow. Did you catch the news bit wherein she swears repeatedly there is no pork in this bill? Did she really make such an outrageous statement?

By best estimates (my source is CRS), the Iraq war cost the taxpayers $>600 billion since March 2003. The war cost an enormous amount of money. Tomorrow, President Obama will spend more than the entire war effort to date in the time it takes to sign his name. Ouch.

A very smart lady once told us in college "just because you have checks in the check book, does not mean you have money." Good advice. Maybe Harriet should give money management lessons to the folks in DC. Either that or take the check book away.