President Obama announced plans (really just intentions, not plans) to cut dozens of government programs deemed inefficient. How is he going to do that? By creating two new positions of course!

President Obama said Saturday that he would soon announce “the elimination of dozens of government programs shown to be wasteful or ineffective,” and he used his weekly radio address to name two new high-level officials to assist him in that effort.

If I were running a business, and had to cut my workforce, you can bet I wouldn't do it by hiring someone else. The city of Alexandria tried the same thing when they hired Michael Gillette, an ethicist, to make the decisions of what programs to cut. In case you are geographically challenged, Alexandria is very much a beltway town. How's that change working out for you?

I attended the Richmond Area Tax Day Tea Party this week. I expected to come home and find coverage of the events on the news, and was disappointed to see that only Fox even bothered to cover the actual events. Not surprised, just disappointed. We had a good turnout - about 3,000 people. Richmond is a pretty staid community, with many of us preferring quiet evenings at home. So 3,000 Richmonders attending anything outside in the rain on a Wednesday is pretty good.

In the Richmond Times Dispatch the following day, the event earned a blah article below the fold on the front page. At the end of that article they ran the following quote from Hari Sevugan, press secretary for the Democratic National Committee:

"While we support the right of Americans to petition their government, what's clear is that the overwhelming majority of folks support President [Barack] Obama's plan to get the economy back on track and provide 95 percent of working families with tax relief, because they are no longer going to accept 'more of the same' as an answer."

Mr. Sevugan, what we have received is exactly that: the same government trying to spend their way out of out problems, only a whole lot more.

I culled the following lines from the Drive-By media as well:

CNN - Though financial-industry and automotive bailouts were launched at the end of George W. Bush's presidency, many demonstrators aimed their words and signs at the Obama administration, criticizing it in part for the recently passed stimulus package.

People at my event were blaming Bush and Obama for their reckless spending.

CBS - Of course, the tea party that seems to have inspired the comment - the Boston Tea Party, that iconic 1773 protest in which Massachusetts colonists dumped tea into Boston Harbor - was tied largely to taxation without representation by the British government. That’s no longer an issue for most Americans.

We, the folks, are not being represented by our elected officials. They are their representing themselves and their re-election interests. Show me the congressman or senator that will say, "I believe personally that I should vote for this huge spending bill, but the people of my district/state believe differently than I do, so I voted against it." That guy is destined for greatness.