In Oct. 9-15 Issue

We definitely need change in Washington.

Change the entire Washington mess.

We are in favor of sending everyone in Washington home and starting out totally fresh. We cannot keep from feeling that the American taxpayers have been deceived, deceived and deceived.

Going back a few days we were watching a news report when members of the bailout committee came out of their meeting with the announcement they had reached a plan. The reporter stated they had been at it most of the night and how hard they had been working. They all came forth from their big meeting room with swanky leather chairs and we are sure more personal valets than working members. We are certain they had a rough evening when all they had to do was wiggle their little finger, straighten their ties and have their desires taken care of.

They should know what a real nights work really means.  They should hold a foreclosure notice in their pocket while working the night shift and then they might understand.

We personally feel like a real fool when all of us were told just how very, very important the multi-billion dollar bailout was to our economy. It just had to happen, The entire world was watching, the national economy was sinking and everyone was trying to tell the taxpayers just how important and necessary this economic bailout really was.

But, then just a few hours later we learn they likely spent most of their time adding on the pork to this so important bill.

While we thought they were working on a way to get us out of this mess, they apparently were spending their time on simply giving away more billions and billions in pork.

Here are just a few of the great bills added to out so important economic rescue bill that will help us all so much.

We find this just totally unacceptable.  They added - A bill that allows plaintiffs in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill to average out their punitive-damage awards, easing their tax liabilities; gives tax breaks to movie and television-production companies and makes it easier for employers to provide benefits to employees to offset the costs of bicycle commutes. It provides an exemption for excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children; it allows for a seven-year cost recovery period for motor sports racing track facilities; extends a rebate against excise taxes charged on rum imported for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands; it re-established and extends the lucrative tax credit for companies doing research and experimentation in the United States, companies such as Microsoft, Boeing, United Technologies, EDS, and Harley-Davidson (the two-year extension is estimated to cost $19 billion).

Further, the bill allows residents of states that don't pay income tax to deduct, from their federal taxes, sales tax paid over the course of the year (Texas, Nevada, Florida, Washington and Wyoming benefit--at a cost, to the rest of us, estimated at $3.3 billion). The bill provides tariff relief to worsted wool fabric producers in the U.S. that use imported fibers and yarns as well as U.S. tailored clothing manufacturers that use imported fabrics in their clothing. This provision may not seem a big deal but it is estimated to cost $148 million.

The American Samoa economic development credit is extended by this bill; it allows certain corporations operating in American Samoa a tax credit, to offset a portion of their U.S. tax liability on income earned there from active business operations, sales of assets used in a business or certain investments. The cost is $3 million, give or take.

The bill extends a tax benefit for the contribution of books to public schools, at an estimated cost of $49 million and it secures for rural schools and community self-determination programs federal funding and also provides payments in lieu of taxes. The total estimated cost: $3.3 billion.

The sum total added to the $700 billion could reach well into the billions, in direct dollars and in tax offsets. For the bill and a complete listing of pork sweeteners and extenders, visit Taxpayers for Common Sense.

We must be simply and openly stupid to allow our leaders to hand out our tax money the way they do and we never even blink an eye.

We heard a report Tuesday that simply put the icing on the cake.

AIG, the insurance giant that went belly-up and all of us pitched in to save the day with an $85 billion bailout.....85 billion!

Now, company officials directed this insurance giant to total failure. Did they resign.

No, after they received the $85 billion tax bailout, they rewarded themselves and sent everyone on a retreat at a top exclusive resort spending over $440,000 for a great get-away weekend.  Rooms were a $1,000 a night, massages and golf at $10,000 all paid by you while you were working to send in your hard-earned tax dollars.

Are we just plain stupid?