We've heard a lot about “the adults in the room” from our Democrat friends over the years.
Usually it was referring to the pro-big-government types, who tend to be Democrats, providing adult supervision to the Republican anti-big-government types.
Like us.
“Now, now, now,” they would say, “where did you come up with that crazy conspiracy theory? That's been de-bunked.”
There was always the argument that doubting the status quo was crazy, not backed up by facts. And for years many of us figured these adults in the room would never put up with wasting billions of our hard-earned dollars. How could they?
But, don't you wonder how the adults in the room – big spenders from both parties, but mostly Democrats – ever thought spending $20 million on a “Sesame Street” production for Iraq was a wise use of (borrowed) American taxpayer dollars?
Two weeks ago, on the Michael Smerconish show on CNN (I watch so you don't have to) a poll showed that once viewers were told that the “Sesame Street” show's message was that children should wash their hands, a stunning 72 percent of Smerconish viewers approved of spending $20 million for that production.
I am not kidding.
Don't you wonder what the adults in the room were smoking when $2 billion was placed in the hands of election denier Stacy Abrams, to dole out to those who think gas stoves are destroying our world, and they'd be nuts to turn down new electric appliances? Were the adults in the room on their coffee break when that was decided?
And where were the vaunted adults in the room when billions of our dollars were spewed around the world promoting every nutty woke cause imaginable, opposing every LGBTQ slight anyone could dream up, and fighting back vehemently over the perceived atrocity of boys being boys, and girls being girls?
They spent billions promoting crazy ideas that never caught on here in the United States.
Is this the hill Democrats want to die on?
Those of us who thought the status quo would never permit such lunacy were lulled into a false sense of security. How wrong we were. For weeks now, astounding waste and instances of mind-boggling excess have been uncovered in departments throughout our federal government by Elon Musk (working without pay) and his team at the new Department of Government Efficiency.
The waste is so pervasive it's hardly news anymore.
And how have our Democrat friends responded?
The latest embarrassing evidence that Democrats have lost their way comes in the form of demonstrations at Tesla dealerships, showroom windows shot out, and expensive electric vehicles built by Musk's company torched by lunatics. All because Musk volunteered to search out fraud, waste and abuse in our government.
Don't we all want to root out waste, fraud and abuse? Seems like a particularly opportune time, as our national debt tops $36 trillion.
Not if you're a Democrat though, when Trump Derangement Syndrome is so rampant, and hatred for Trump so viral that they prefer trillions in waste over anything – ANYTHING - the despised Trump proposes.
So now we also have Musk Derangement Syndrome, suffered by those who have no problem with wasting trillions, and who view the federal government as a huge jobs program, employing as many people as possible, regardless of need for the work they actually do.
(Try telling your boss in the private sector that you're OK with waste because it's a small percentage of your budget, and that you have to employ more people than you really need, so they can have jobs. Go ahead. I dare you.)
And attacking the man who makes their formerly-beloved electric vehicles, provides communication to disaster sites via Starlink, and is in the process of bringing home two stranded astronauts with his SpaceX spacecraft - well, all that looks positively laughable to the rest of us.
My fear is that the Democrat flair for character assassination will succeed, and once again, efforts to root out waste in government (Grace Commission, Al Gore, Mitch Daniels, Simpson-Bowles) will fail, as so many have in the past.
For now, though, our Democrat friends have painted themselves into an impossible corner.
And they're determined to keep right on painting.
Dave Simpson can be reached at: DaveSimpson145@hotmail.com
