These, in my complete honest opinion, are utterly ridiculous. These congress members are so petty that they have to figure out a way to take money from our nations budget and spend it on something nearly 100% useless... All for votes. This means, quite a bit of our tax payers money is going into something not very constructive or helpful at all. If that wasn't bad enough, it's usually something local, not even nation wide.
Now this would be completely fine... IF WE DIDN'T HAVE SO MANY PROBLEMS THAT NEEDED TO BE FIXED. I mean come on! Let me give you an example. In August of 2005, Katrina became the costliest hurricane in United States history. Somewhere around 90.1 billion dollars(2010 USD). In 2006, instead of trying to find money to spend for helping Katrina victims and rebuilding the areas, they spend 29 billion dollars on 9,963 projects in the 11 appropriations bills that constitute the discretionary portion of the federal budget. (info gathered here)
This is what one billion dollars looks like...
Now multiply it by twenty-nine.
Get my point?
Oil spills, homeless problems, social security deficit, hurricane relief... The list goes on and on. So, my argument is simply that Our national government should not allow pork spending. PERIOD. Pork barrel spending is a ludicrous waste of our nations money. Instead of fixing problems with our nation, congress members literally put in a lot of effort to do these projects. All for their own re-election to office. I think the government should look into what congress members are attempting to do with our nations money and chop any pork they see in half. Stop it in it's tracks, and use the money for something that this nation actually needs.
- Blake
Your opinion is fascinating. You say that there are tons of problems that our congressmen should focus on other than buying more votes from their constituents. That they can spend millions of dollars on useless projects that lead to just a higher national debt.
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of on the fence about this issue. On one side, someone could side with you and say that these projects are a total waste of taxpayer money. That a new park or bridge isn't the most prominent problem to fix. But others would say that these spendings are completely needed because they create jobs and make their communities a nicer and more enjoyable place to live.
Over all your article is very persuasive. If we lived in a world of absolutes, I would take your side on this argument. But there are other options to resolve this dilemma. I think their should be limits on what government funds should be spent on. There should be a set amount of money our representatives are allowed to invest in these projects and that they should show substantial evidence that their spendings are relevant and needed.
I liked how you used visual aids to enhance the power of your editorial.