Horatio Bunce's smackdown on President Bush: "Where do you find any authority...?"

Somebody please explain to me how it is that a millionaire tycoon can give away $20 million of the people's hard-earned money to a terrorist front, can raid the public treasury for $200 billion to spend on wars with no defined goals or even strategy, and who is now now appropriating $350 million - also from public funds - toward recovery efforts from the Southeast Asian tsunami can have no qualms about spending other people's money like a drunken sailor... but only finds enough charity in his own heart to write tsunami victims a check for the paltry sum of $10,000.

What President Bush does with his own money is of no concern to me: if he wanted to write a check for five bucks, he's got a right to do that. But when it comes to our money and my own "contribution" (read as: pay taxes smile and ignore the big gun we've aimed at your head)... well, that does concern me. It should concern everyone. That money that Bush is giving away so freely - regardless of good intention - isn't his money to give away at all!

I could say more, but it was already said long ago and with far more eloquence than I can muster on the subject. You'll have to do a Google search for Horatio Bunce and how he figures into American history, but here's his sage wisdom that slaps just about every politician in Washington hard in the face...

"...Where do you find in the Constitution any authority to give away the public money in charity? ...There are plenty of wealthy men in and around Washington who could have given $20,000 without depriving themselves of even a luxury of life. The congressmen chose to keep their own money, which, if reports be true, some of them spend not very creditably; and the people about Washington, no doubt, applauded you for relieving them from the necessity of giving by giving what was not yours to give. The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution."

Bunce did persuade at least one American politician with his take on things... but like I said, you're going to have to do a search on it yourself. You'll thank me later for the extra work 'cuz you'll come to appreciate it all the more :-)