My Perspective: America’s Government needs some Fiscal Responsibility

In a time when America is facing an economic downturn and many economists as well as financial analysts are referring to America’s economy as being in a recession, it seems as if our Federal politicians have not gotten the memo. Many United States citizens are not noticing this but it seems as if the change that was supposed to Washington has not yet arrived yet. Even before Barack Obama was inaugurated into office and officially became the 44th President of the United States of America, many Congressional leaders held parties and receptions as soon as the 111th Congress was sworn in. Therefore, many U.S. citizens are not aware of this but many of these parties, receptions and welcoming events are paid for by the U.S. taxpayers.

I hope this isn’t a shock to many of you but the $30,000 dollar bottle of wine and $10,000 dollar crab cake or Cavour came from us the taxpayers. Nonetheless as many of us are struggling to pay our bills and feed ourselves, our politicians in Washington seem to not mind using our tax dollars to wine and dine each other. We’re in a recession and our government still has not tightened its belt the way it should be tightened. While President Obama should be commended for putting a pay freeze on his senior staff members, that is really not enough fiscal responsibility. It is a fair start and a nice gesture but nice gestures are not what are needed in a time when so many American’s are suffering.

How can our government chastise and criticize the big wigs of huge corporations and Wall Street executives for their bad spending habits and reckless irresponsibility when our Congressional leaders are just as reckless with the U.S. citizens’ money. The Legislative and Executive Branches of government are proceeding down a path of irresponsibility when they need to practice fiscal responsibility. The media is not covering all the wine and sip receptions that have been taking place in D.C. the last three weeks. The news media is not telling us the American people that many of these events and activities are costing us thousands of millions of dollars in a time when we as ordinary Americans are struggling to keep a roof over our heads.

All the receptions, luncheons and parties that have taken place in D.C. are not the only ways that America’s taxpayer dollars are being wasted by our federal government. For example, the 647 pages stimulus package bill cost us the American taxpayers at least $10 million just to print up all the pages and distribute it to the 435 members of the House of Representatives plus their staff, media outlets and others. That’s just an estimate of how much it probably cost. Nonetheless the question that we the American taxpayers should be asking is why aren’t we trying to save money plus paper by not printing out 647 pages and have our U.S. Congress members read the legislation through laptops and computers.

Many of you who have seen the Senate and House floors of our federal government on C-SPAN and other news outlets, might notice that there are not computers in the House or Senate chambers. That has become mind bothering to me and it is clear that our government who talks about saving mother earth can’t save mother earth when they are continuing to print off thousands of millions of pages of bills for each legislator when they could have simply looked at the bills on a computer. America’s government needs some fiscal responsibility especially in a time when our economy is in a recession.

America’s government has been on a spending spree since the new Congress has been sworn in and it is clear that if we the American people don’t speak up now and say something than they will continue to spend our taxpaying dollars as freely as they want. We the American people deserve better than what we are doing. Our government needs some fiscal restraint just like they are telling Wall Street to have. How can our federal government criticize Wall Street for their spending habits and for looking for bailouts without practicing fiscal responsibility when our own federal government has not done so themselves? How can our federal government talk about responsibility when they are not practicing any? How can our federal government tell us the American people that we need personal responsibility when they haven’t practiced any whatsoever when it comes to spending our tax dollars on things that don’t benefit us the American people?

Our government needs some fiscal responsibility and until our nation’s leaders tighten their own belts and stop spending our taxpaying dollars as if it is there than our nation will continue to be in a recession. Our government needs some fiscal responsibility because we, the American people can’t be the one’s paying for the parties, luncheons and receptions that our Legislative and Executive Branches are hosting. Their needs to be some real fiscal responsibility in Washington and that all begins with our nation’s leaders particular President Barack Obama declaring that no taxpayer dollars will be used for any more wine and sip receptions the rest of my Presidential term.

It is clear that as our economy gets worse that our government needs to find ways to save money. That can only occur when our government practices some fiscal responsibility with our tax dollars. It’s bad enough that the U.S. House of Representatives just passed a huge $819 billion dollar stimulus package and our U.S. Senate is proposing a $900 billion dollar stimulus package with only 10% of that money going to the economy this year. So as our governments prepares to pass this huge stimulus package, they need to be passing legislation that prevents them from spending our taxpayers on their own personal receptions, parties and luncheons amongst each other.

Don’t ask us the American people to tighten our budgets if our own federal government isn’t willing to tighten theirs. What’s even worse is that our federal government is spending our money on things that they don’t need while we are suffering during this economic recession. Therefore America’s government needs to not only practice fiscal responsibility but they need to apply it not now but right now. America’s government needs some fiscal responsibility badly and that is the responsibility that we the American people must demand from our federal government particularly our legislative and executive branches.

Stop spending our tax dollars as if it is your very own piggy bank. Our tax dollars are not the legislative and executive branches personal piggy banks so they to start showing some fiscal responsibility during a time when our nation is facing a recession. Until America’s government starts showcasing fiscal responsibility than we will never get our economy back on track. So we as the American people need to ask our government to have fiscal responsibility during a time when we are facing an economic recession that could slowly but surely turn into a recession. We the American people need to demand that our federal government practice some fiscal responsibility right here, right now!

America’s Government needs some Fiscal Responsibility!