Congress! Go Home!

A crude riddle used to float around bachelor parties and locker rooms:

Question: What food is guaranteed to kill a woman's sex drive?
Answer: Wedding cake.

I have a variation:

Question: What act is guaranteed to turn an intelligent person into an idiot? Answer: Elect him to Congress.

The answer to problems is often clear and simple to anyone but an idiot. Congress rarely sees the simple answer.

Consider government spending. In Congress, it works this way: various departments of government submit budgets calling for a 5% increase over the previous year. For the purpose of illustration, let's assume that, spread over many departments, those 5% increases add up to $150 billion. Congress ponders these budget requests and decides to give the departments, on average, only a 3% increase. Then they proudly trumpet that they have cut spending by $60 billion.

Wrong. They increased spending by $90 billion.

The correct solution? Eliminate the department. A classic example is the Department of Energy, formed to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. It has not. Eliminate the Department. Billions saved.

The Department of Homeland Security. Formed in the nervous days following 9/11. We have the FBI, the CIA, the Army, the Navy, The Marine Corps, The Air Force, The Coast Guard, The National guard... all able to secure the homeland. Eliminate the Department of Homeland Security. More billions saved.

How much more spending could we cut? How many more departments are there in the federal government?

In Congress, they talk endlessly about doing the nation's work. Bulletin to Congress: The nation will work fine without you. Take a vacation!