Typical Congressional Fiscal Ineptness

A few days ago I posted a blog to the effect that "My Head Hurts" having to do with the complete fiscal irresponsibility of our present federal government.

I tried to point out the inequities is the fiscal approach used by these bureaucrats in the handling of your and my tax dollars. I thought I'd let this soak in for awhile but I got slam dunked by Rep. Jim Oberstar (D) Minn, who among his other titles is Chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

Heres the sickening story. This is bureaucratic "tax and spend" fiscal thought process at it's very best.

We have been bombarded by all the media for the last few days of the terrible tragedy of the bridge collapse in Minnesota with the still uncounted loss of human life and the millions of dollars in damages, bridge replacement cost, clean up and loss of untold dollars to the areas economy.

So what does the Chairman of the House Transportation Committee plan on doing?

His immeediate thought is to hold hearings in Washington on bridge failures. Then adding insult to injury he is recommending a national increase of 5 cents per gallon to the 18.4 cents already being collected which brings this federal tax to the nice round figure of 23.4 cents per gallon.

With typical political fiscally irresponsible mentality, he wants to use this tax increase to cover the cost of better training of inspectors and their supervisors. This instead of going for the throat of the "earmarks" that seemingly we just can't do without. This gives me cause to question the congressmans ability to even balance his own checkbook.

To add further fuel to my fire I have done a bit of reasearch on this individuals qualifications to have the temerity to try to foist these questionable practices on we common folk.

I'll quote from his published biography;

EDUCATION

* B.A. French/Political Science, Summa Cum Laude, College of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn. (1956).
* M.A. Program of European Studies, College of Europe, Belgium (1957).
* Additional studies: Laval University, Quebec, Canada; Georgetown University Graduate Program.

PREVIOUS WORK

* 1963-1974 Chief staff assistant to U.S. Rep. John Blatnik, (MN-8).
* 1971-1974 Administrator, House Public Works Committee Staff.
* 1959-1963 Civilian : taught English to Haitian military personnel, and French and Creole to U.S. Marine Corps officers and NCOs.

A short review of the above gives us an insight as to his qualifications to Chair this Committee.

To terminate this tirade, I 'll quote to you from a public interview aka press conference as follows ;

"If you are not prepared to invest an additional 5 cents in bridge reconstruction and road reconstruction, god help you," Oberstar said during a news conference along the river downstream from the Stone Arch Bridge.

On Tuesday, Oberstar said he will hold congressional hearings on the bridge collapse when the House.

Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, has not finalized a witness list for the hearing but will begin doing so this month.

"This is obviously something that needs to be dealt with quickly, and we're going to see hearings and work as soon as Congress reconvenes," said John Schadl, Oberstar's spokesman."

I rest my case.