"Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt." — Herbert Hoover 

"Rather go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt." — Benjamin Franklin 
 
Eighteen Republican senators voted for the monstrosity known as the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill, thus forever relinquishing their claim to belong to a party committed to less spending, smaller government, and personal responsibility. 
 
The 4,100-page measure, which I can almost guarantee no one has read in its entirety, is loaded with more pork than Porky Pig carries on his overweight body. 
 
Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, is among the few calling out his colleagues for their spending orgy, though few seem to care so long as they are getting their share of the largesse. In what he calls his annual "Festivus Report," Sen. Paul lists some of the financial sins committed by this Congress. They include what he called "a whopping $482,276,543,907 of waste, including a steroid-induced hamster fight club, a study to see if kids love their pets, and a study of the romantic patterns of parrots and coffee machines for the Pentagon." 
 
That's just for starters. 

The conservative Heritage Foundation lists some more: 

No wonder they waited until after the election to pass what Heritage rightly calls "a betrayal of America's voters' wishes" as expressed at the ballot box. Can anyone who voted for this embarrassment explain why any of it is the responsibility of the federal government? An additional question: with the debt at $32 trillion and rising, is there a red line that members would not cross? In other words, is there any limit to their spending? How much more debt would they accept? 
 
As noted in previous columns, no nation has ever been able to survive this level of national debt. Taxpayer money is being wasted as is the money we are borrowing from other nations (and printing). It is the major cause of inflation that is harming the buying power of most Americans. We are ignoring the powerful proverb "waste not, want not" that was followed by Americans of the World War II generation. They were called "great" for this and other reasons we are also ignoring. 

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