Government lacks fiscal restraint

"Fiscal restraint" is a dirty phrase in Cook County, Springfield and Washington D.C. these days. The sheer amount of waste, and the lack of remorse for it, is staggering.

In Cook County, Todd Stroger raises taxes by $400 million so he can continue to give sweet jobs to his relatives and campaign workers.

Meanwhile Stroger Hospital doesn't even bother to bill insurance companies; after all, he county can just raise taxes again if more money is needed.

In Springfield, Rod Blagojevich continues to run Illinois' finances into the ground.

He too padded government payrolls with donors and contributors.

He spent so much money on his pet projects that Illinois stands to lose nearly $9 billion in federal highway funds because the state can't produce the matching funds.

Washington is no better.

$Fifteen billion was earmarked last year for lawmakers' pet projects. Since it is an election year, the earmark spending will likely be much higher this year.

In 2006, the Democrats promised to reform the earmark system if they regained control of Congress.

They won back Congress and promptly forgot about their promise when they realized how much money they could dole out.

The sole light at the end of the tunnel is Congressman Mark Kirk.

He is a member of the appropriations committee in the House; he could be one of the biggest spenders around.

Instead he has sworn off earmarks entirely. He did this because he realizes that tax dollars are not his to play with.

People worked hard to earn that money, government should respect it. I'm voting for Kirk because he respects my tax dollars.

Bryan Reed

Arlington Heights