The Real American Express

This past Saturday, I attended the Republican Rally on campus. The rally was replete with refreshments, American flags, and great candidates. Of those candidates, one really enticed me with his speech. His name was Joe DioGuardi. A CPA that had been in Congress during President Reagan’s second term, Mr. DioGuardi was our lone, but well qualified, senatorial candidate at the rally. Halfway through his speech, he pulled out his Congressional voting card. He held up the card and said, “My friends, take a good look at this card. This is the Most Expensive Credit Card in the World.” He was right; the government increases the national debt without ever being held accountable.

After the rally had ended, I conversed with Mr. DioGuardi about reckless spending at the federal level and his time in office under Ronald Reagan. As he was leaving, he invited me and a few others back to his RV, where he gave us copies of his recently revised book Unaccountable Congress: It Doesn’t Add Up. I read the book as soon as I returned to my dorm room. It exposed the true extent of the national deficit – $56 trillion if Medicare and Social Security debts are included. That means each of us owes $569,330 because of the irresponsible spending of 535 individuals (I’m glad Mr. DioGuardi informed me of this). It also illuminated the problems with Congressional budgeting, spending, and accounting, touching on issues such as healthcare and Social Security. Mr. DioGuardi’s book allows the average citizen to see through the “smoke and mirrors” of the appropriations process.

Unaccountable Congress does an excellent job underscoring the contemptible Congressional budgeting processes and inadequately designed bailouts. However, I would like to focus on a matter mentioned in passing in “Chapter Six: A House of Ill Repute” that is plaguing every level of government – personal spending. Spending on personal luxuries has become a pastime of the members of Congress whom Mr. DioGuardi refers to as “spendaholics.” Nancy Pelosi is the latest culprit of this wasteful spending. Pelosi spent over two million taxpayers’ dollars in the past two years on travel expenses for her and her family. Thousands of dollars were spent on her expensive friends Jack Daniels and Johnny Walker. Fine dining also accounted for tens of thousands of tax dollars. This wasteful spending needs to stop.

Now, there may not be a company to cut Congress’s line of credit, but we the people can monitor its spending. Mr. DioGuardi’s organization, Truth in Government, exposes the poor budgeting and spending practices prevalent in Congress. The organization’s website, truthingovernment.org, is constantly being updated with the latest news and information concerning fiscal issues. The information shows why Social Security reform, which has been ignored for too long, is imperative. Why repealing Obama’s Healthcare Bill should be of a high priority.

If Congress continues to increase the national debt at the rate it has been, China will soon overtake us as the number one superpower. The threat that China poses is great, as their economy is irrefutably more stable than, and arguably as powerful as, ours. Social Security will be non-existent. Taxes will have to be increased to keep up with defense spending. The hazardous spending needs to stop. It is our job as citizens to pressure the lawmakers, especially those in Congress, to rein in the monstrous budget we are facing. If we don’t, the deficit will indisputably have terribly adverse results on future generations, including our own.