SOUTH DAKOTA STRAIGHT TALK

A pair of news reports this week has me wondering – do the Bureaucrats really have a tin ear to what is happening in America with average hard working folks that are sending in a big chunk of their earnings to Uncle Sam?

This week the Social Security Administration held a training session for 700 of their managers at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed swank Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa. Apparently the bureaucrats got a good deal (85 bucks a night). But throw in travel and Casino Night festivities and you can’t help but believe they are a little out of touch. Not being aware of the public outrage over AIG bonuses and bailout paid for golf outings and Stadium naming is political deafness.

Not to be outdone, incredibly President Obama’s Recovery.gov is getting another $9.5 Million for the operation of their website bringing their stimulus money total to $18 Million for just the website. Holy transparency – didn’t anyone tell them the government is broke?

Government it supposed to be part of the solution not the part of the problem. It really isn’t news to anyone who has been thinking about it or paying attention since the credit meltdown last Fall, but the U S House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, (that is a mouthful) issued a report this week on the Government’s genesis, involvement, and subsequent complacency in its role of fostering mortgages to people who were not credit worthy or could not afford them.

The Committee report is important and interesting reading to get real perspective on the housing bubble and credit meltdown. It is important to note as does the report that the government is not totally responsible as there were bad actors in the markets; though they were in large part responding to government sponsored opportunities.

Government is playing an oversize role in our economy and with expanded government control on the horizon we need to slow down and ask how much more personal responsibility do we want to turn over to a faceless government that only sees rules and regulations not the people whom they are paid to serve?