42 Million Reasons

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Are you kidding me? 42 million dollars to send out letters that alert you of the coming tax check? Did we all really need a letter that tells us to cash the check when we get it? I honestly believe that most people could have figured it out.

The news of the tax rebate has been on television, radio, the internet, and in every newspaper in America. Why did we need a letter? What did you do with your letter? I read the first paragraph, thought - "Yeah, I knew this," and tossed it away.

I think of all the good things that 42 million bucks could have went for - like feeding people who don't have enough to eat or education - so that teachers don't have to buy their own supplies, or breast cancer research, or AIDS research, or finding an alternative fuel source, or global warming studies.... anything. Hell, we could have even sent it to Iraq to be with the rest of our money.

I have a college buddy who went to work for the US Government - he loves to tell the story of ordering a hammer - just to see how long it would take him to get it and how much money it would cost when the hammer finally got to him. The result of his little experience? The hammer arrived in six weeks at a cost of $95.

Why can't we control this spending? Aren't enough people suffering in this country for all of us to stand up and say - stop the craziness?

I'm thinking of selling my letter on E-Bay - if it cost that much to get it to me - it must be worth something.

Some day, when I'm in charge - things are going to be different. My college buddy has a nice expensive hammer - I imagine that after he found out how much it cost taxpayers to send out a letter that no one read - that he thought about bludgeoning himself with the claw part of the hammer.

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