Do Not Pass Go; Do Not Collect $550 Million

In Meg's Monday blog posting, she writes of a recently passed bill calling for $550 million to be spent on 8 jets intended for representatives from the House. She fumes, "I can not believe that in these tough times that this is what The House of Representatives thinks is most important to spend money on. It makes me so angry..." I understand why she's frustrated--I'm frustrated, too. It seems a trifle irresponsible for government officials of any capacity to frivolously spend money. But at the same time, when set beside how much money a nation the caliber of the U.S. whips through each fiscal year--recession or no--$550 million isn't so daunting. Likewise, I don't entirely believe that the Representatives have passed this bill for the obvious and selfish reasons that Meg and Ria Misra (author of the article Meg cites) bring up. I have, and potentially mistakenly, more faith than that... or, I feel that if the Representatives' intentions are decidedly not sincere with the bill, I hope that they have more creative alternative plans for the jets than just holding down the American economy.

I know it's unfair, but at the same time I can't really hold the passage of this bill against anyone. They are our leaders. It seems like there's more to this story than the few paragraphs the above-mentioned authors have explained (though as of yet, it's hard to pin down more facts and figures). For now, though, I may be indignant that this bill has been passed, however, I do not think it single-handedly signals a deeper and continued recession.