Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Priorities askew

Gov. Bill Richardson, October 2006 in PB County

Sometimes you just have to wonder if anyone gets priorities straight. You know, like the beach is a beach, not a mall.

Did anyone know we were building a $700 million embassy, the largest American embassy in existence, in Iraq? Our country is hemorrhaging and we spend money on foreign soil and create jobs for Iraqis. That’s the least we can do, I guess. It could always be worse, right? The war, so far, has cost us $619,972,068,399 and growing by the second. Obama brought his new economic plan to Congress yesterday and is endorsing tax cuts and new spending. He wants to “break the momentum of this recession.” Gov. Charlie Crist, on the other hand, is worried about our $700 million budget deficit and plans on cutting $276 million from healthcare programs for the poor and elderly. Way to go, Governor!

Now we have Bill Richardson turning down a Cabinet position in Obama’s administration, the U.S. Commerce Secretary’s job, because of a possible pay to play. Apparently there is a company that contributed to his political campaign in 2003-2004 and then won a State contract. He says that a grand jury would find him innocent. On the other hand, we have Commissioner Retha Lowe who was found guilty by Florida Elections Commission of campaign violations. This involved a company that gave her multiple contributions from entities they own and gets awarded a Lake Worth contract--not one contract but two--and she refuses to step down.