A century and a half ago, our young country celebrated as the ceremonial golden spike was hammered in place commemorating the linking of tracks forming the first transcontinental railway. California was now tied to the rest of the continental US.
Today we have undertaken a new project for the history books. The new stimulus bill provides $50,000,000,000.00 to build a rail connection between Disneyland and Las Vegas, Nevada. The whole project will be "golden", not just the spike. How will we ever be able to express our thankfulness to Congress for that gesture?
It takes a lot to leave me speechless, but lately I have only been able to silently shake my head and be grateful my mom isn't alive to see these times. We have a 1001 page spending bill that was hurried passed. Most supporters admit they haven't read it. Haven't read it? The spending spree reminds me of a low budget television show when contestants are turned loose in a grocery store to grab all they can stuff in their carts in a limited time. They push, grab and race to the finish trying to get more in their cart than the other contestants. The one with the most stuff is the winner. What have we just done? Will we be able to think of ourselves as winners?
I read that even if this stimulus bill provides three and a half million jobs, each job will cost $250,000.00. That doesn't mean each worker will make a quarter million dollars. You would have to be in the collapsing financial markets to get that kind of help. Maybe they could have skipped the railroad to Vegas and created 35 million jobs each paying $25,000. Maybe they could have taken a little more time to consider the cost of what we are doing.
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