June 30, 2009

No matter which party controls Congress, the spending continues. Last week, the House passed a $500 billion transportation bill with no thought of how it will be paid for. Democrats and Republicans signed off on it. Spending restraint is nowhere in sight.

Neither are tax cuts. The House passed a so-called global warming bill by another name that will make energy more expensive for all of us while doing nothing about the fiction of climate change. Michael Barone of the Washington Examiner noted that House members from the Northeast and Pacific coast provided the votes necessary to pass the measure. That’s because the rest of the country relies on cheap and available coal to generate its electricity and these states don’t.

An Examiner editorial noted that eight Republicans were critical to the bill’s approval as 44 Democrats voted against it. The eight received financial support for their re-election campaigns from environmental groups. So once again, a congressperson can be bought and paid for if the price is right. Come on down!

Only public revulsion will stop these and many other outrages. But we seem more interested in Michael Jackson than the future of America.

Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.