To Our Masters in Government, we’re just smelly “tourists”

Our Masters in Government hold us in total contempt. That’s understandable, given what we let them get away with.

But it isn’t often Our Masters in Government actually tell us what they really think of us. Senate Commissar Harry Reid actually did so, concerning the new Capitol Visitors Center, which is designed to make sure the citizens don’t get too close to Our Masters in Government.

When I first went to Washington with my family in 1972, there was little or no security in Congress. You parked your car near the Capitol, just walked in, maybe got you bag searched, then went to your congressman’s office, where his staff greeted you with smiles, a copy of the Constitution, and a lot of lies. If you got lucky, the congressman would pop out of his office and shake your hand. At least they seemed to like their constituents.

Nowadays, Congress is set up like an armed camp.  The Capitol Visitors Center keeps citizens even more remote from their “representatives,” sort of like touring Lenin’s Tomb outside the Kremlin.

The Center, of course, is way over budget:

Initially conceived in the early 1990s and projected to cost $71 million, the CVC has become an example of out-of-control government contracting and mismanagement. After costs ballooned and construction schedules spiraled out of control, the three-level, underground monument to congressional excess finally came in at a whopping $621 million and three years behind schedule.

That’s a 775% cost overrun. Probably a bargain given most government programs, such as the ongoing $7,000,000,000,000.00 bailout. Maybe we should consider the Center’s waste an economic stimulus program that anticipated the new depression by a decade.

Anyway, when asked about the new Center, Commissar Reid said:

My staff tells me not to say this, but I’m going to say it anyway. In the summer because of the heat and high humidity, you could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol. It may be descriptive but it’s true.

That’s how Our Masters in Government really look on those who pay their immense salaries and keep them rolling in luxury, even during a Depression they caused. You’re not a valued citizen, but a smelly tourist who has to be kept from stinking up the perfumed halls of Congress.

You’re not free, but a slave. And don’t get close enough to your Masters’ mansion that they smell you.