Sure .. it’s your money. You worked for it; you earned it. That money actually represents the expenditure of a portion of your life … and here’s this politician telling you that even though he doesn’t actually need that money right now, he’s going to go ahead and keep it because if he returns it to its rightful owner – you – then you won‘t “spend it right.” Now excuse me, but don’t you get to decide what would be the right way and the wrong way to spend your money?

You know the rest of this story. The politicians in Washington decided that they would be doing the spending, not you. You just could not be trusted to spend it “right.” So President Obama sent the word to Princess Pelosi to gather together all of the spending dreams and schemes of her Democrat members of congress and compile them into a massive spending bill. The bill would be pure pork and designed for nothing more than to secure reelections; but it would be called stimulus.

Now I could waste a few thousand words here describing all of the absurd ways this money is being spent. Vice President Biden actually told us that there would be waste. He was talking to business leaders in New York in early June when he said that waste would be inevitable in spending the stimulus money. Inevitable doesn’t begin to cover it.

OK … just a few examples:

• $650 million for digital television converter boxes

• $248 for furniture at Homeland Security’s offices

• $850 million to manage Forest Service lands

• $88 million to design an icebreaker (a ship, not clever bar conversation)

• $150 million for facilities at the Smithsonian

Now tell me .. just how are these projects going to stimulate our economy? But, on the other hand, what if this money was in the hands of the people who earned it? They could be buying new flat-screen televisions instead of converter boxes. The new furniture could be for our living rooms instead of government offices. The money spent to manage Forest Service lands (what stimulus!) could be spent to develop privately-owned property. The icebreaker money could be spent by those who earned it on a new fishing boat or a cruise. And the $150 million for the Smithsonian could have been spent on visits to local museums and attractions .. as chosen by the people.

I walk through the shopping malls and drive down the streets distressed over the numbers of closed businesses and empty storefronts. Each closed business is lost jobs and shattered dreams. Each shuttered window is a hole in our economy. Government spending on digital converter boxes, icebreakers and managing Forest Service lands weren’t going to keep these businesses open. $750 billion in extra dollars in the hands of American consumers might, though, have done the trick.

Come on, folks. Try to think with that part of your brain you developed after government schools. This whole spending boondoggle wasn’t designed to get our economy going again. It was designed to increase the size and power of our Federal government and to inoculate the political class against voter disgust.

These are people who think that America is great because of government; and the more government we have the better America is. This is why the stimulus money had to be spent by the government sector … not the ordinary, hard-working masses. We just could not be trusted to spend that money the “right” way; and the right way, of course, is in an effort to strengthen government.

In the meantime … step outside and smell the stimulus. It’s really doing the job, isn’t it? Yup. Government always knows best … especially when it comes to spending our money.

The people who made this decision will stand for reelection next year. You will look at the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and tell yourself that 434 of those rascals just have to go. Every one except yours. The rascals know this. They’re not worried.