When a household has financial problems, responsible people look at the receipts and bills line by line to see where the money is going. Then they decide what they can’t live without and start eliminating other items until the outgo is less than the intake. This is normal. This is how it works. One can’t live beyond one’s means.
What if Congress were not allowed to vote on an appropriations bill without first publishing a detailed list of what it would fund? I’m not talking about in the Congressional Record, or even on the back page of the classifieds. No, the American people, who after all sent those people to Congress to manage our money — what you pay in taxes is still your money — deserve a full accounting. We should be able to read, in plain English, a line-item spreadsheet of who would get what amount, for what purpose, before the vote is taken. Then we can tell our representatives and senators exactly how we feel.
Would this ever happen? Would the majority of American voters take the time to read it? I don’t know, but I’m learning to never say never. Seems like a good step to me. Oh, I know bills are hundreds if not thousands of pages long. All I want to see is the budget — who gets what, to do what.
I heard John McCain say in Friday’s debate that he would not sign bills with earmarks. If Congress won’t fess up to the public, maybe the next president could say, “Well, they’ve sent me this bill. Here’s the list of who gets what. [and be comprehensive] What do you think? Would you sign it?”
They work for us. Lock up their credit cards.
