Practicality of many ideas never checked
Dear Editor;
With our country already so deep in debt that we may never recover in our lifetime, brain-dead politicians still find new ways to waste money. One of the latest inventions suggests a project to convert pond scum into diesel fuel. We have a question — what is wrong with the tried-and-true method spending money to drill into the oil and gas reserves we are sitting on? Florida Everglades are full of scum ponds, but the environmentalists might object to disturbing the gators and snakes in their habitat.
Washington is full of ideas to spend money, like the approved project to determine why hogs stink. So far as I can tell, hog smell never permeates into the bacon or ham on my plate with breakfast eggs and toast. I recommend adding bath salts to the water where hogs waller as a cure, but that would increase the cost of smoked ham.
Useless projects like the two mentioned here saturate budgets approved as being valuable to our existence. The excuse that to begin cutting these projects would cut jobs and hurt the economy is a joke. There are countless projects proposed and under way that could be cut, never affect job market or the economy.
The facts are, that representatives refrain from pointing out questionable projects from each other, preferring to “scratch each others back,” playing politics. In our system, the very minute an elected rep is sworn in, he is looking ahead to see what has to be done to get re-elected for the next term. In many cases, constituent welfare is secondary to political party. Like the flu bug, it is doubtful these practices will ever go away in my lifetime.
Respectfully submitted,
Robert B. Hurm
3607 Tannehill Drive
Maryville TN 37801
