Pocket Change in Washington

Five million dollars is pocket change to the U.S. government. If a million dollars in 100 dollar bills were dropped in the middle the House floor tomorrow, none of the Congressmen would bother stooping to pick any of it up. They no longer think seriously in terms of millions of dollars, or hundreds of millions. Now it’s billions, and hundreds of billions; even trillions.

News reports reveal that the Pentagon has spent $550 million so far in Libya, mostly for bombs and missiles. Within the first 10 days of the conflict, the U.S. forces had flown 983 bombing sorties, and launched 192 long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles from ships in the Mediterranean Sea at a cost of about $1 million to $1.5 million each. To them it’s like you or me shooting off Roman candles in the backyard on the 4^th of July.

The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, in a recent analysis, estimated that the Libyan no-fly zone could cost $100 million to $300 million per week, or as much as $9 billion for 6 months.

Meanwhile, Astronauts at the International Space Station had great fun showing off their new $2.5 million dollar humanoid Robonaut, recently delivered by the space shuttle Discovery. The toy is intended as an “astronaut helper,” except that its legs won’t arrive until next year. No word yet on the cost of its legs.

Then there are the extravagant traditional pen signing ceremonies at the White House every time the President signs some new piece of legislation into law. Anyone who had anything to do with it is there; Congressmen, Senators, officials, bureaucrats, lobbyists, sponsors, and all kinds of other hangers on, to watch the great historical moment.

On the signing table there are always dozens of identical fancy high quality fountain pens, all bearing the official Presidential Seal. The President picks them up one by one in turn, using each to write a small bit on the document. Then he passes the expensive collector items out to his adoring followers so that each one of them can show their grandchildren the pen the President of the United States used to enact their favorite new law. Later, the pens can be sold at historical memorabilia auctions for a nice fat payout. 

It’s thousands upon thousands of little things like this, together with all the big stuff, that bleeds the taxpayers drop by drop until all of a sudden its $14Trillion.

The federal government is still subsiding automakers with incentive programs to support the electric car market. Nine cities across the country are set to receive thousands of free charging stations this year courtesy of Uncle Sam.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers has described the government support as "critical" in achieving the government’s goal of a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. Each lucky buyer of an electric car will receive a $7,500 rebate from the taxpayers.

The U.S. State Department’s Narcotics Rewards Program was created by Congress in 1986 to help catch drug traffickers. Now the Obama administration is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of a drug suspect who killed a U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement agent last February in Mexico.

Why not? Who cares? It’s easy to spend other people’s money. Money is no obstacle when it’s not yours. They borrow money from you and me; then make you and me pay it back. They print it on paper, which is what it will be worth some day. They spend it like confetti.

I hope they catch the crooks, but wouldn’t $5,000 be just as effective a reward for the purpose? Does it really have to be $5 million? Better yet, just end the Drug War and there wouldn’t be such killings, not to mention all the $billions in wasted taxpayer money.

I wonder how much the U.S. government would offer if the victim were you or me.

That’s right – not even pocket change.