Christmas lumps of coal from Congress ~ By Herman Cain

Commentary from WorldNetDaily

By Herman Cain Posted: December 21, 2009 ~ 1:00 am Eastern © 2009 As members of Congress headed out of town for the Christmas recess, they left behind some gifts for the taxpayers: The House passed a $155 billion jobs bill, a $1.1 trillion fiscal 2010 spending bill to fund operations of the federal government, and Sen. Ben Nelson's deciding 60th vote on the Senate's health-care bill. A few observations about each gift might lessen your appetite for Christmas dinner, but it's worth knowing the truth and avoiding a few calories as a bonus. Since the $787 billion so-called stimulus bill spent on roads, bridges and "shovel ready" projects produced monthly 2009 unemployment rates ranging from 8.1 percent to 10.2 percent, and a reported 480,000 new jobless claims last week, it is safe to conclude that we cannot spend our way to prosperity. Congress and the Obama administration believe we can, and that an additional $155 billion bill will be the economic surge we need. That's highly unlikely since they are spending the additional money on the same type of projects and government jobs for which the $787 billion was spent. Merry Christmas, taxpayers. We get some more ineffective spending of our money. The $1.1 trillion for fiscal year 2010 (Oct. 1, 2009 – Sept. 30, 2010) is a 10 percent increase over fiscal 2009 to fund operations of the federal government. The annual federal budget has increased every year in this decade, and this is the highest of the decade. When most people are just happy to have a job without a raise because of the recession, Uncle Sam gives itself a double-digit increase. Merry Christmas! Let's not forget the increase in the national debt limit that Congress had to approve to accommodate the 2010 fiscal year increase, and to make its spending binge look legal for another red-ink Christmas using our credit card. READ FULL STORY >