You are not going to believe some of the things that the U.S. government is spending money on. According to a shocking new report, U.S. taxpayer money is being spent to study World of Warcraft, to study how Americans find love on the Internet, and to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam. Not only that, but money from the federal government is also being used to renovate a pizzeria in Iowa and to help a library in Tennessee host video game parties. These are just some of the examples in a new report on government waste from Senator Tom Coburn entitled "Wastebook 2010". Even as tens of millions of American families find themselves suffering through the worst economic downturn in modern history, the U.S. government continues to spend money on some of the craziest and most frivolous things imaginable. Every single year articles are written and news stories are done about the horrific government waste that is taking place and yet every single year it just keeps getting worse. So just what in the world is going on here?
It almost seems as though Congress actually enjoys inventing new ways to waste U.S. taxpayer money. It seems nearly inconceivable that anyone could keep a straight face while trying to justify spending money on many of the things in the list below.
At a time when the U.S. national debt is closing in on 14 trillion dollars, government waste just seems more out of control than ever. The following are 20 of the craziest things that the U.S. government is spending money on....
#1 A total of $3 million has been granted to researchers at the University of California at Irvine so that they can play video games such as World of Warcraft. The goal of this "video game research" is reportedly to study how "emerging forms of communication, including multiplayer computer games and online virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life can help organizations collaborate and compete more effectively in the global marketplace."
#2 The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the University of New Hampshire $700,000 this year to study methane gas emissions from dairy cows.
#3 $615,000 was given to the University of California at Santa Cruz to digitize photos, T-shirts and concert tickets belonging to the Grateful Dead.
#4 A professor at Stanford University received $239,100 to study how Americans use the Internet to find love. So far one of the key findings of this "research" is that the Internet is a safer and more discreet way to find same-sex partners.
#5 The National Science Foundation spent $216,000 to study whether or not politicians "gain or lose support by taking ambiguous positions."
#6 The National Institutes of Health spent approximately $442,340 to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam.
#7 Approximately $1 million of U.S. taxpayer money was used to create poetry for the Little Rock, New Orleans, Milwaukee and Chicago zoos. The goal of the "poetry" is to help raise awareness on environmental issues.
#8 The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs spent $175 million during 2010 to maintain hundreds of buildings that it does not even use. This includes a pink, octagonal monkey house in the city of Dayton, Ohio.
#9 $1.8 million of U.S. taxpayer dollars went for a "museum of neon signs" in Las Vegas, Nevada.
#10 $35 million was reportedly paid out by Medicare to 118 "phantom" medical clinics that never even existed. Apparently these "phantom" medical clinics were established by a network of criminal gangs as a way to defraud the U.S. government.
#11 The Conservation Commission of Monkton, Vermont got $150,000 from the federal government to construct a "critter crossing". Thanks to U.S. government money, the lives of "thousands" of migrating salamanders are now being saved.
#12 In California, one park received $440,000 in federal funds to perform "green energy upgrades" on a building that has not been used for a decade.
#13 $440,955 was spent this past year on an office for former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert that he rarely even visits.
#14 One Tennessee library was given $5,000 in federal funds to host a series of video game parties.
#15 The U.S. Census Bureau spent $2.5 million on a television commercial during the Super Bowl that was so poorly produced that virtually nobody understood what is was trying to say.
#16 A professor at Dartmouth University received $137,530 to create a "recession-themed" video game entitled "Layoff".
#17 The National Science Foundation gave the Minnesota Zoo over $600,000 so that they could develop an online video game called "Wolfquest".
#18 A pizzeria in Iowa was given $60,000 to renovate the pizzeria's facade and give it a more "inviting feel".
#19 The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave one enterprising group of farmers $30,000 to develop a tourist-friendly database of farms that host guests for overnight "haycations". This one sounds like something that Dwight Schrute would have dreamed up.
#20 Almost unbelievably, the National Institutes of Health was given $800,000 in "stimulus funds" to study the impact of a "genital-washing program" on men in South Africa.
In light of all this, is it any wonder why the approval rating of Congress recently hit another new record low?
According to the most recent Gallup poll, only 13 percent of Americans approve of the job that Congress is doing.
Just think about that - only 13 percent!
Our politicians seem very confused about why there is so much anger in the country today. Well, there are certainly a lot of reasons for it, including the fact that the U.S. economy is on the verge of collapse, but it certainly doesn't help that our government is basically flushing our tax dollars down the toilet and spending them on some of the most wasteful things imaginable.
It would be bad enough if the federal government was swimming in money, but the truth is that all of this waste is being committed at a time when the U.S. government is nearing bankruptcy.
Over the last 30 years, the U.S. national debt has gotten 13 times larger. We have accumulated the largest debt in the history of the world and there is no end in sight.
In fact, we are rapidly running out of people to borrow money from. According to the Wall Street Journal, in order to repay maturing bonds and finance the exploding budget deficit, the U.S. government will have to borrow 4.2 trillion dollars in 2011.
Eventually the rest of the world is going to lose confidence in the ability of the U.S. government to repay all of this debt. Once confidence in U.S. Treasuries is totally gone, and there are already signs this is starting to happen, the game will be over and the U.S. financial system will collapse.
But the U.S. Congress just continues to act like it is "business as usual" and the wasteful spending just continues to get worse. Someday historians will look back and think that we must have been a nation full of idiots and morons.
For decades our politicians have been spending us into oblivion, yet we keep sending the vast majority of them back to Washington D.C. every time an election rolls around and the mainstream media keeps assuring us that our "respected leaders" know exactly what they are doing and that everything is going to be okay somehow.
It is almost as if some sort of collective insanity has overtaken most Americans. The path we are on inevitably leads to national bankruptcy and the destruction of our financial system, but only a small percentage of the population seems to care.
Well, in the end we will reap what we have sown. Unfortunately, the economic pain that is coming is going to be devastating for all of us - including those of us who are awake and are trying desperately to change things.
Who needs to borrow anymore?
In today’s corrupt US eCONomy, Bernokio’s Federal Reserve prints up all the counterfeit electronic dollars needed, and CONgress spends them to buy votes.
Since the counterfeit electronic dollars are indistinguishable from real dollars, there’s no problem, until the whole system collapses under the weight of Bernokio’s serial bubble-blowing Ponzi scams.
I graduated from University California Irvine.
To people used to spend other people’s money, by hundreds of billions, the amounts above are nothing! A tip!
Needless to say this is not an American problem, this is a systemic problem, the world over.
The bigger the government, the bigger the waste.
And big starts already at city level. Just look at the mess cities like Miami, Chicago or LA have put themselves in.
There are probably solutions to this wasting money problem, but they won’t ever been implemented within the context of the actual corrupted system.
We’ll have to wait a long time before this changes, if it ever does!
Click on my name to visit my blog.
I thing the November elections were not a republican mandate but people are frustrated by the lack of other parties to vote for. They both are terrible, however, the democrats are much less terrible than the republicans. I love how the republicans are earmarking it up after they promised not to. The tea baggers must be livid. What dolts. totally duped by AstroTurf kock brothers.
Now where do apply for funding to study whether Xbox video games improve reaction times after consumption of alcohol.
Who said that “cut and kickbacks” are only in Russia?
Your tax dollars at work!!
Har-dee-har-harrrr….
I graduated from Phoenix College in 1987. Couldn’t afford to go to Arizona State University.
And yet… I still have half a step on the kids getting their diplomas aa they walk towards the stage… who think a web site is Spider-Man’s home.
Go figure.
I want a grant to study the long term affects of alcohol, pronography, sex, drugs, violent movies and video games on males over 30.
This is the US Congress that YOU voted for. This has been ongoing for perhaps close to a hundred years. The fact that it is happening when the annual deficits reach over a TRILLION dollars has finally gotten America’s attention. Maybe in the 2012 election there will be real cleaning out of the IDIOTS who run this scam on American citizens. I live in KY. Moron and fool US Senator McConnell had no problem with Bush’s stunning deficits, yet now he claims to see the light on earmarks. What a joke. We borrow money from foreigners to fight unnecessary wars and spend on stupid projects. America is DOOMED. Let me know how YOUR standard of living is doing in a couple of years…….
What can we expect from the government! Let’s face it; people are already tired of hoping for the better. The American government does not have the political will to be honest with the American people about our financial condition. The politicians will most likely take the easy way out by printing us into hyper-inflation rather than admit their folly and take the responsible action of implementing Greek-style austerity.
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” They both are terrible, however, the democrats are much less terrible than the republicans. I love how the republicans are earmarking it up after they promised not to. The tea baggers must be livid. What dolts. totally duped by AstroTurf kock brothers.”
Wake the F up. This is not about dem/repub, liberal/conservative. Its people like you who believe that there’s any kind of difference between the two parties that keeps us divided and fighting among ourselves.
Our “leaders” in Washington, with the exeception of a few like Ron Paul, are detached from reality. The examples of wasteful spending listed above are just outrageous.
I worked for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) while David Walker, a man that I respect and admire, was the Comptroller General (CG). Mr. Walker, in his “CG Chats” with GAO employees, would often tell us that when testifying before various Congressional committees about the true state of the U.S. government’s finances, he would get nothing but “blank stares and dropped jaws.” They just didn’t seem to get it.
Mr. Walker took the helm at GAO in 1998, and shortly thereafter he started sounding the alarm to the Congress that the U.S. government is on an unsustainable fiscal path. When Congress didn’t seem to be listening, Mr. Walker set out on a “Fiscal Wake Up Tour” to get the message out to the American people. It seems that only recently have some in the current administration realized that we are in trouble. While the recent proposals by Obama’s Commission on Fiscal Responsbility and Reform are commendable, I feel that they are too little, too late. In my opinion, there is no way out of this situation. We have allowed this once great nation to be destroyed.
Great ready. The collapse is near.
Admittedly some of the above is just frivolous nonsense; however, some of it could actually be put to good use in our understanding of the world. I do find it odd that you spent so much time blasting the gov’t's spending habits (which is run by average Americans) but failed to point out that the DOD’s budget is well over $1 trillion for the year 2010 (wikipedia). Now, that is waste. Imagine if we halved that and put it into education and research, building the infrastructure, etc.
The whole mess is caused by the ’2 party’ system that is common to most ‘democratic’ countries. The problem is that the main 2 parties convince voters that a vote for anyone else (other than the main 2) is just a wasted vote thus keeping the status quo and basically giving us the choice between one bunch of idiots and another bunch of idiots.
Also, especially in the UK, voters tend not to vote in the party they /want/, but rather vote for whichever party will keep the most hated party out.
“13 percent of Americans approve of the job that Congress is doing.” I’m surprised it’s that high. It’s good to know that only 13% of Americans are clueless.
‘democratic’ countries
Funny, I thought we live in a republic, where there is a “rule of law”, the problem is both
parties think they are above the law! And theft, I mean “spreading the wealth” is constitutional.
Ahmnodt Heare – Thanks for the laugh. I doubt that only 13% are clueless though. Some of them just want the handouts.
Caught on to your name too. I am not creative enough to make something up. I still use my own name much to my determent,especially when I put my foot in my mouth.
Ouida Gabriel
shut up oeden. the government morons are not “average” americans. Average americans realize what is going on but can’t do much about it at this point. Spending money on education, research, and infrastructure? WTF is wrong with you? Do you not read this blog at all? Government spending IS the problem. It doesn’t matter where it’s being spent, it needs to be dramatically reduced. Think before you comment about something of which you have zero knowledge.
Does anyone believe in the Invisible Hand? He must have his way with this economy! He is doing something much bigger than you can imagine.
Hugh Jidette 4 President, see;
http://www.facebook.com/HughJidette
Maybe time to pack up and move to Canada. They seem to be lots smarter up there. If only it wern’t so cold
I can think of two quiok ways to solve these idiotic spending assaults on our Treasury:
If members of Congress decide to be moronic enough to bring these up for a vote, make each spending grant a separate bill. This would stop the commingling of this stupidity into one giant spending bill that consists of every individual members’ pet projects. By putting everything together, the resulting bill has something for everyone; if each is a separate bill, then how could any one member justify a vote for this junk in someone else’s district.
Raiding the Treasury like this is worthy of criminal contempt. Arrest and try on charges of theft the congressmen that vote “yes” on these bills. Congressmen should be expected to be held personally responsible under criminal laws for this; we cannot allow it to continue.
Re #2 – Methane emissions from cows are a major component of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions. Everyone laughed at it here too, but it’s very real – Methane is ~20x more potent than CO2.
Watch this.
http://inflation.us/videos.html
Granted, this sort of waste, any waste for that matter, is disgusting particularly when it’s being financed with borrowed money. But eliminating all of it wouldn’t put a dent in the country’s deficit or debt. Here’s an idea: Tell these vote buying congressional miscreants that they can have ten percent of however much they reduce the following year’s budget by. They can use that ten percent for any asinine project they think will buy the votes of their constituants in the next election. Result- budget surplus.
Time for a 3rd party folks. I am sorry thet I voted to put some these idiots in office.
How about a $350,000 grant to a major university, for a scientific study of the effect of rat poison on rats.
Pet projects are peanuts. The MEAT of the problem is unfunded entitlement programs such as social security, health care. Let’s not forget the defense departments unfunded “war on terror” and all the patriot bumper stickers on our cars after 911. There is a lot of blame to go around.
Senior government time servers measure success by the size of their departments and budgets. Meaning the amount they can spend. This will only stop when the voters find a way to start eliminating programs and departments. In other words, making politicians accountable.
Remember Ronald Reagan’s great observation that the closest thing there is on earth to eternal life is a government department.
Craig, Yes methane is much more potent than CO2 and neither is an problem. If you look at history every 20-30 years they vacillate between global cooling and warming. We have no idea how much of either of these chemicals are released by nature every year, much less if humans emmisions have any effect on nature. Gore is only talking because he has made 100+ million off gullible fools who believe a politician. He even admitted that ethanol doesn’t work energetically he only wanted to be President. Ever thought that as we come out of an ice age warming might be a good thing??(if it is happening and there is serious debate on it and lots of faked cooked data trying to support it)
I’ll bet that 90% of the people in the USA have no realistic idea of what they will be facing. It’s, work for the man, get a paycheck, spend the paycheck, party a little, watch the game, keep family and friends happy if possible, grumble about the govenment,go to work again
Another great article!!! The U.S. and the EU are going to collapse, it’s just a matter of when!!!All this pork barrel spending should have been sent into taking care of our Vets!!!! Fellow Patriots, it does not matter any more, we have went past the point of no return, all you can do at this time is prepare for the hardest, most disastrous time in US history!!! You can see the handwriting on the wall, just like in the days of Belshazzar’s whose Babylonian kingdom fell to the Medea and the Persia in Daniel’s time. Corruption and greed has taken over and now the rest of us will have to reap what these evil men and woman have done to our country!!!
Are you kidding… ? Where is the mention of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Where is the money Homeland Security spends on a bogus war? Where is the Pentagon budget… who would attack us, we’re all armed? Where is Wall Street…. and on and on
Gimme a break and actually do some journalism.
The sad thing is that it isn’t collective insanity, the problem is that a vast portion of our society has had their minds overthrown by a psychotherapy cult, and the politicians and bureaucrats and other appointed “leaders” are just chief among the brainwashed.
I thing the November elections were not a republican mandate but people are frustrated by the lack of other parties to vote for.
Gary, If there are no parties you are able to vote for, then you should stand for govt yourself. No one will vote for me you think, maybe give people a chance. They might surprise you after all you can’t possibly do a worse job than your current senator or congressman.
If people are going to believe the lies and spin of their corrupt politicians and not vote for people like you, then you Americans get the govt you deserve.
I hate to see/say this but this rhetoric seems similar to many comparable blogs.
What I see is a bunch of (so called) educated/aware respondents, who see the problem, voice their curative opinion, quote ‘details’ and express their dissatisfaction.
But the problem is, like all the rest of the ‘do nothings’ out there, they hit the ‘send’key, open/pour another beverage, go back to their TV and consider their job done. I guess they expect ‘someone else’ to fight the system?
As long as this is the most (meaningless) resistance the government anticipates, why not carry out business as usual. Nothing but ‘noise’!
Gee, why don’t they ‘listen/change’ things? The question is, why would they? Business as usual, just wear earplugs! No real threat!
In response to Dan -
“Dan
December 21st, 2010 at 3:27 am
Now where do apply for funding to study whether Xbox video games improve reaction times after consumption of alcohol.”
A friend of mine a decade ago joined a study at U. of Texas where they paid the subjects to drink alcohol and play video games to judge reaction times. His favorite past time was drinking and playing video games, so the more he played, the better he got, even though he was drinking progressively more. My point being – The government does pay people to drink alcohol and play video games….
Let’s raise hell and punish those idiots who ask for grants from the government. If no one asks, then no ear marks and grants will be given. We must pay as we go and out of our own pockets. Only buy what you NEED, not what you WANT. If research grants are provided by private funds, they will have to be worthwhile projects and will be closely audited.
The article didn’t surprise me. We are running 1.3 trillion dollar deficits since Obama took over and the economy hasn’t improved. All this money is being used to buy votes and create more generations of welfare babies. It used to be only Americans now the foreigners are coming here by the millions for the free stuff.
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Move from the paying line to the receiving line is now then new American dream.
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Those that take responsibility for their own situation will be severely punished in the future. Through combinations of higher taxes, higher fees, lower pay and inflation the beast will be fed. Our employers will be punished with higher government costs while the American consumer spends more and more of their paycheck on products made by foreign companies. Our employers will have to outsource more and more to stay price competitive. Fewer and fewer paying more and more until America becomes a footnote in the history books like the Roman empire, Spain and the Soviet Union.
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No country or person has ever borrowed their way to prosperity.
Sirs:(Mdms)
I agree with all you say and you’re absolutely
right, only a small portion of the population
seems to want to hear anything about all of this let alone consider what to do about it! And yes as old testament scripture states,
“those who sow the wind shall truly reap the whirlwind”.
However, let me add something further to these
prognostications, if you don’t mind. There are
a hell of a lot more ingredients in this mix of America’s karma that rarely if ever gets mentioned. It all began with the heartless racist massacre of the Pequot Indian Tribe on May 26th, 1637 led by 65 Anglo-Saxon Puritans who with the aid of five-hundred Narraganset and seventy-five newly formed Mohigans led by
the betraying Uncas son in law of the Chief of
the Pequot tribe and made a tragic hero in James Fennimore Cooper’s lying novel The Last
of the Mohigans initiated an epic of lying, distortion and invalidation of true American History unprecedented in human history! The contrived war with Mexico a ruse to bring slavery to Texas is another of many such events untaught in American classrooms as is the fact that slavery was actually not legal in the United States and most knew that 70 years before Lincoln was first elected! How is this possible? Arrogance, hostility to difference, and a deep seated fear of having to live with those who are different in complete equality! Yes, this country is due
for a complete collapse, not merely as the result of financial irresponsibility but
because of all the lies, distortions, and
utterances that so disgusted Kordell Hull when he read the belated Japanese directive
before the ‘sneak’ attack on Pearl Harbor!
Perhaps he should have been aware of our own lies, distortion, and bogus utterances in this country.
EDT
Chicago, Illinois
Some of these are OK. I for one don’t mind the govt spending money to protect animal life (cf. salamanders), since there is no incentive for private enterprise to do so. Also, studying cows’ contribution to greenhouse gas effect is not a bad idea either; what if it turns out that cows actually contribute more damage than cars, and that we’re regulating the wrong thing. On top of that, these are pennies. If you’re serious about reducing government spending, cut the defense budget in 1/2. We’ll still be the biggest military on the planet by far, and this is where the real waste is.
you reap what you sow, so sow the things you like to reap!
Gary 2 you are wrong. Republicans keep the essential values in mind. while democrats take hardd earned money away from the people who worked for it and gives it to prople who sit on their butts waiting for a handout. and insulting the tea party activists is very unintelligent because they are just standing up for their freedom and rebelling against the government that is supposed to be protecting them instead of ripping them off. and Gray 2 i think you, are a complete and total dolt.
13% of the people approve of congress!? Where in the heck do they find these people?
On #3… While some people may not understand the importance of culture, it is worth noting that the Grateful Dead are in fact in the Library of Congress since “Truckin’” is in fact a NATIONAL TREASURE.
I can report from South Africa that not one cent of that genital washing money made its way over the pond.
Yawn! Articles like this always fail to ignite the fire the author wants to create. While I certainly don’t want the government spending 30 grand on renovating some pizza place, that’s the cost of what- one missle? Our military budget is the biggest in the world. More than half of ALL government spending is military. THAT’S a problem.
These kinds of stories are cute and all, but they’re simply distraction from the real problem.
These examples are nothing–what abpout the BILLIONS of dollars that the Pentagon has ‘lost track of’? How about the banker bailout? Giving a small business 60 grand to revamp is what the government should have been doing with the money that went to the bankers. This article is a diversion scam.
The government is being much more wreckless with much larger amounts of money for illegal purposes.
We can still turns this around but it’s up to YOU to vote for Ron Paul in 2012.
Here’s how it can be done:
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=xk5gjjcab&v=001Mo1LsqllbCDkjTQ4wPanOvSLA7CQR4hGirqiHbBnT7iDjwA9VvJHa6yvMH9Mdj0i4t5nlWiBAU-i5KMnrGQxxEHAJYJKFLx-HnPp_nj56q41c5SULXlhfg%3D%3D
Unfortunately for the misdirected ire in this post and the original Waste 2010 document produced by the good senator’s staff,no one tackles the 800 pound gorilla of military spending run a muck. The interest alone on just the military portion of the national budget for the last ten years is greater than the total tax revenues for 2009. As long as we continue to enact socialist programs for the already extremely wealthy (banks, hedge funds, military industrialist, etc.) and neglect main street and any real social compact with each other, then the outcome has many fine examples through out history. Social collapse, when it occurs, is ugly and violent.
All this stuff, 20 projects, and it doesnt even add up to $1 billion. Alhtough spending hundreds of millions on stupid University and NIH studies about male prostitutes and world of warcraft is completely assinine I dont think critter crossings are a waste, more of those should be made. It all just goes to show how upside down and screwed up all of it is. All the scam artists are getting everything they want.
Americans complain about congress but they only complain about congressman other than their own. They re-elect their own congressman time and again so we end up with the professionals on the dole. We need term limits. Eliminate Congressional pensions. That should do the trick.
you forgot the billions of $ allocated to high speed rail. from nowhere to nowhere [Madera Ca to Bakersfield
High Speed Rail is NOT wasteful. Transportation is critical for sucessful businesses and the California Bullet train will create hundreds of thousands of jobs–mostly in the private sector.
If you want to complain about government waste–go look in the military.
How about the 48Billion ear marked from 2008-2013 given to foreign countries for HIV/Aids awareness?
You can’t make people in these foreign lands change their behavior by tossing money at them. It is time for the HIV/Aides billions to be put to better use.
And I am sorry for the people who have the disease. But, after 30 years of preaching it is time for everyone to start using condoms and taking responsibility for themselves.
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can exist only until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by a dictatorship.”
Good luck, we’re going to need it!
And not to mention the 50million pledge to lebanon which will go for weapons for Hezbula the terriost group and all the other million of dollars that fund wars and dictators and the snake the IMF that will soon give rise to and Internation World Order.
Hey, forget about farting dairy cows..the really noxious emissions are coming from the professional Gas Bags on Capitol Hill!
People can mock these projects, or the relatively small amount of waste these projects represent. However, it remains hard to overlook the non-essential nature of much of this government spending. I believe it explains why only 1 person in 8 approves of the job Congress is doing.
Hey Kevin Bear, don’t lump me into that group. Zoe Lofgren will personally verify to you the many letters I have sent her criticizing her voting and promising to never vote for her. I ALWAYS vote against the incumbent. In fact I have, by virtue of my own actions started my own political party called the Anti-Incumbent party. And I vote a straight ticket. In fact where incumbents run unopposed. I cast no vote.
All of our problems are the result of business as usual thought and deed rather than fresh ideas and an advancing society. Only a straight ticket votes against incumbents will give us the latter at the expense of the former. And don’t tell me about the need for “experience”. Government shouldn’t even be involved in 90% of what its involved in, so experience is irrelevant and should be carry no weight in deciding who to vote for…