The bad news is that it’s as ugly as many of us expected it would be.

The good news is that Americans are questioning it, and in many cases, rejecting it.

The “it” I’m referring to is the huge expansion of governmental power in Washington. It’s the kind of power that was promised from candidate Obama - - and, of course, it was promised to be all for our own good - - and is now been wielded by his fellow Democrats in Congress and by his administration. And for those who truly believe that government employees and agencies can and should solve all of one’s problems (and for those of us who actually know better), the first few days of the Obama presidency have been quite an eye-opener.

The government hand-out bill that’s currently being tossed around in the Senate - - the one that even Congressional members themselves only jokingly refer to any longer as an “economic stimulus bill” - - is a life-lesson in itself. The version of this bill that Speaker Nancy Pelosi produced in the House of Representatives was so wasteful, so welfare-like, so “pet-project,” so “non-simulative” that even her fellow Democrats in the Senate found it to be distasteful, and declared after the House vote that they could not support it.

Only a few weeks ago, President Obama’s stated intentions of a “stimulus bill” were to devote an enormous sum of taxpayer dollars to repairing, enhancing, and expanding America’s “infrastrucutre” - - roads, bridges, public buildings, and so forth - - with the belief that this spending would create work opportunities, and thus, “stimulate” the broader economy.

Today, estimates indicate that a meager 3% to 7% of the roughly $800, 000,000,000.00 spending spree has anything at all to do with America’s “infrastructure.” Worse yet, the “infrastructure” projects that actually are stipulated in the bill are so misguided, even the New York Times was prompted last week to publish a story about how Japan’s two decades-long spending orgy on “infrastructure” has done nothing to boost it’s national economy.

It must be quite a heady experience to be a “governmental official” - - to be able to control so much of other people’s money - - and to be able to spend it as you see fit, even if it’s not the way you promised that you would spend it. And by every indication, much of the new Administration and Congress is made up of a special breed of person who is not only comfortable breaking promises, but is also skilled at ignoring the most inconvenient of laws.

Consider that no less than four such “officials” personally selected by President Obama to serve in his Cabinet have been embroiled in scandal, and most of these have been forced to step-down. The first to fall was New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, chosen to head up the Department of Commerce, but then was discovered to be under federal investigation for allegedly granting government business contracts in his home state in exchange for campaign donations. Continued...