It’s time to cut up the credit card! Congress is raising the debt ceiling by another $1.8 trillion. Rep. David Obey, Democrat from Wisconsin said "We don't really have a choice. The bill's already been run up; the credit card has already been used. When you get the bill in the mail you need to pay it." The bad news is Congress has the charge card, but the American people are getting the bill. The spending by our congress over the past year is totally incomprehendable.  Last week. Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Rep. Tom Price, R-GA., rolled out their list of what they call the 11 worst pork-barrel projects of the 111th Congress. Most of them have already been approved for funding. Here is the list.

-- $1.9 million for "water taxis to nowhere" in Pleasure Beach, Conn. Congress approved the money after a fire destroyed the bridge to Pleasure Beach, but the area already is accessible by foot and rowboats.

-- $3.8 million for an urban art trail in Rochester, N.Y.

-- $3.1 million for upgrades to a boat owned by the New York State Museum. The boat dates back to 1921 and was originally used in canals.

-- $3 million for bicycle racks in Georgetown -- the Washington, D.C., neighborhood that is one of the wealthiest areas in the country.

-- $1.5 million to improve the streetscape in the six blocks surrounding a downtown Detroit casino.

-- $578,000 for fighting homelessness in Union, N.Y. According to a local news report, the town never asked for the stimulus money and did not even have a program through which to administer the money. The town supervisor said he wasn't aware of a homelessness problem in the town.

-- $550,000 for a skateboard park in Pawtucket, R.I.

-- $500,000 for fish food in Missouri, to help defray the costs for state fish farmers.

-- $400,000 for renovations to a vacant building in City of Jal, N.M.

-- $380,350 to encourage landowners in West Virginia to grow shiitake mushrooms and ginseng.

-- $90,000 for a communal kitchen in Watsonville, Calif. The shared kitchen is meant to help food service entrepreneurs.

Glenn Beck pointed out on his December 11th show that the $787 billion in stimulus money was meant to create jobs.  Glenn provided a list of where some of that money has been spent.

• $2.2 million went to a failing golf course in San Francisco

• $54 million for a California "wine train"

• $1.5 million went to fossil research in Argentina

• $75,000 went to puppet shows and a clown theater

• Almost $400,000 for people to keep journals of their malt liquor and marijuana use

• $200,000 to study the "hookup" behavior of college students

• $500,000 to study how people use Facebook

• $220,000 on the study of birds, the sex drive of rats and the "caste system" and division of labor in ants

Mr. Beck also pointed out, “How many times have you heard about the "evil CEOs" and the "wealthiest one percent," from our politicians? USA Today wrote: "The highest-paid federal employees are doing best of all on salary increases." It turns out being rich is only bad if you are in the private sector!  We this recession began, the Federal Transportation Department only had one person making over $170,000. Today there are 1,690!  The average salary in the private sector is $40,331 and the average salary for federal employees is $71,206.

Another fine example of stimulus spending is by Senator Max Baucus, Democrat from the great state of Montana. He is the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. He gave a $14,000 pay raise to a female staffer, Melodee Hanes at the time he was becoming romantically involved with her (2008) and later that year took her on a taxpayer-funded trip to Southeast Asia and the Middle East.  It’s okay though, the Senator now lives with Ms. Hanes and is divorcing his wife Wanda of 25 years.

Here are the phone numbers of our Senators and the numbers of Senators in neighboring states. Please take the time to contact them and tell them to STOP THE SPENDING!

Kentucky - Jim Bunning - (202) 224-4343, Mitch McConnell - (202) 224-2541

Tennessee – Lamar Alexander - (202) 224-4944, Bob Corker - (202) 224-3344

West Virginia – Robert C. Byrd - (202) 224-3954, John D. Rockefeller (202) 224-6472

Virginia – Mark R. Warner - (202) 224-2023, Jim Webb - (202) 224-4024

Ohio – Sherrod Brown -  (202) 224-2315,  George V. Voinovich - (202) 224-3353

Indiana – Evan Bayh - (202) 224-5623, Richard G. Lugar - (202) 224-4814

Illinois – Roland W. Burris - (202) 224-2854, Richard J. Durbin - (202) 224-2152

Missouri – Christopher S. Bond - (202) 224-5721, Claire McCaskill - (202) 224-6154

Merry Christmas and May God bless…

Ron Phillips