"Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent." Napoleon Bonaparte America is considered to have the best democracy money can buy, and for the last twenty five years, The Centre for Responsive Politics has been monitoring and tracking the money flow of US politicians. It is a not for profit organisation with no affiliation to the Republicans or the Democrats, and its store front is a wonderful website called : OpenSecrets.org with rich databases that ‘keep the b@#$ds honest' on K-Street. This site has won accolades’ and awards from dozens of quality political commentators. Now in fairness to our current system, that website and the CRP would not exist without the power of the US Constitution, defending the right of free speech and certainly would not be allowed in many other countries. What is ‘K-Street’: K Street is a main road that begins in Georgetown Washington DC in the North West of the city and ends at the North Eastern part of the city at Florida Avenue just down from Gallaudet University. The street is famous for the many lobby groups that are based there. Down on K-Street people give money, people take money? Who gets it, and really what does it all mean? We can use and twist statistics to paint any picture we like, but as a complete novice, I entered the OpenSecrets.org web site and started pushing buttons. The questions in my mind were who gives the most both as an individual and corporate entity. Were these groups linked? What did they hope to get out of this. Those specifics fell from me as did my jaw when I saw the sheer size of the numbers. In 2008 a staggering $3.3 billion dollars was spent pushing agendas. From 1998 to mid 2009, the porkbarrel was filled to the tune of $25.18 billion dollars. Let me repeat that for affect: $25,180,000,000.00 dollars of dressed up political bribery. Now for a little bit of perspective, the following list of education services was provided in the state of California in 2008:

ESEA Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies School Improvement Grants Title I Childhood Grants Reading First State Grants Even Start State Agency Program--Migrant State Agency Program--Neglected and Delinquent Comprehensive School Reform (Title I) Impact Aid Basic Support Payments Impact Aid Payments for Children with Disabilities Impact Aid Construction Improving Teacher Quality State Grants Mathematics and Science Partnerships Educational Technology State Grants 21st Century Community Learning Centers State Assessments Rural and Low-income Schools Program Small, Rural School Achievement Program Indian Education--Grants to Local Educational Agencies Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities State Grants Language Acquisition State Grants An impressive list of government funded services that were provided to this states 9,300,000+ children under 18 years of age Total Cost: approximately $2,700,000,000+ that $2.7 billion dollars. This is where I paint my picture with stats. Ten years of political bribery money that flowed down K-Street into God knows who's pockets could of funded the above mentioned childrens programs for 9 years. Or the equivalent of 86 million (86,000,000) American children.

The 'who gives and 'who takes' is interesting but tragically irrelevent when the waste reveals our skewed priorities. Lets face it, when we pay Ben Roethlisburger of the Steelers $27,700,000 per year to throw 17 touchdowns and average Joe Firefighter Paramedic $63,000 to save childrens lives.., thats only 25 lives per touch down, yep we have it altogether. God Bless $merica

"Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent." Napoleon Bonaparte

America is considered to have the best democracy money can buy, and for the last twenty five years, The Centre for Responsive Politics has been monitoring and tracking the money flow of US politicians.

It is a not for profit organisation with no affiliation to the Republicans or the Democrats, and its store front is a wonderful website called : OpenSecrets.org with rich databases that ‘keep the b@#$ds honest' on K-Street. This site has won accolades’ and awards from dozens of quality political commentators. Now in fairness to our current system, that website and the CRP would not exist without the power of the US Constitution, defending the right of free speech and certainly would not be allowed in many other countries.

What is ‘K-Street’: K Street is a main road that begins in Georgetown Washington DC in the North West of the city and ends at the North Eastern part of the city at Florida Avenue just down from Gallaudet University. The street is famous for the many lobby groups that are based there.

Down on K-Street people give money, people take money? Who gets it, and really what does it all mean? We can use and twist statistics to paint any picture we like, but as a complete novice, I entered the OpenSecrets.org web site and started pushing buttons. The questions in my mind were who gives the most both as an individual and corporate entity. Were these groups linked? What did they hope to get out of this. Those specifics fell from me as did my jaw when I saw the sheer size of the numbers.

In 2008 a staggering $3.3 billion dollars was spent pushing agendas. From 1998 to mid 2009, the porkbarrel was filled to the tune of $25.18 billion dollars. Let me repeat that for affect: $25,180,000,000.00 dollars of dressed up political bribery.

Now for a little bit of perspective, the following list of education services was provided in the state of California in 2008:

ESEA Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies School Improvement Grants Title I Childhood Grants Reading First State Grants Even Start State Agency Program--Migrant State Agency Program--Neglected and Delinquent Comprehensive School Reform (Title I) Impact Aid Basic Support Payments Impact Aid Payments for Children with Disabilities Impact Aid Construction Improving Teacher Quality State Grants Mathematics and Science Partnerships Educational Technology State Grants 21st Century Community Learning Centers State Assessments Rural and Low-income Schools Program Small, Rural School Achievement Program Indian Education--Grants to Local Educational Agencies Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities State Grants Language Acquisition State Grants

An impressive list of government funded services that were provided to this states 9,300,000+ children under 18 years of age Total Cost: approximately $2,700,000,000+ that $2.7 billion dollars.

This is where I paint my picture with stats. Ten years of political bribery money that flowed down K-Street into God knows who's pockets could of funded the above mentioned childrens programs for 9 years. Or the equivalent of 86 million (86,000,000) American children.

The 'who gives and 'who takes' is interesting but tragically irrelevent when the waste reveals our skewed priorities. Lets face it, when we pay Ben Roethlisburger of the Steelers $27,700,000 per year to throw 17 touchdowns and average Joe Firefighter Paramedic $63,000 to save childrens lives.., thats only 25 lives per touch down, yep we have it altogether.

God Bless $merica