Who's Bailing Out Who?

If you've been following the Congress as they work through legislation to solve our current financial crisis, you know by now that the Senate passed a 450 page bill last night. Included in that bailout bill are new tax earmarks for:

Film and Television Productions (Sec. 502)
Wooden Arrows designed for use by children (Sec. 503)
6 page package of earmarks for litigants in the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident, Alaska (Sec. 504)

The bill also extended previous earmarks for:

Virgin Island and Puerto Rican Rum (Section 308)
American Samoa (Sec. 309)
Mine Rescue Teams (Sec. 310)
Mine Safety Equipment (Sec. 311)
Domestic Production Activities in Puerto Rico (Sec. 312)
Indian Tribes (Sec. 314, 315)
Railroads (Sec. 316)
Auto Racing Tracks (317)
District of Columbia (Sec. 322)
Wool Research (Sec. 325)

Here we are, in one of the most difficult times in our country's history, and personal and pet projects get added to an already obscene amount of taxpayer money. These are examples, and there are many more, of the kind of government corruption and misuse of tax dollars that we have chafed at for many years. What it tells me is this, that even in the face of devastating circumstances, I'm still going to take care of myself first, period, end of debate. It saddens me to think that in the greatest country in the world, we can't work together to solve these problems and put each other first for a change. I am more convinced than ever that God must help us intervene in changing the direction that we are going in as a country. Greed and corruption must be uncovered and there should be a standard of righteousness held up that causes us to stop doing the same unethical things over and over. What am I going to do about this? Pray, call or email my representatives and ask them not to vote for the House of Representatives bill that will validate the Senate bill, and participate in conversations to help educate myself and others on what we are doing to our country if we don't begin to take some responsibility, and vote the rascals out of office in the next election.