Air

“a fateful decision”

“ In one of his books, David Brinkley recalled that in 1938, Congress made what a few of the more cantankerous members said foretold the collapse of the Republic. It installed air conditioning. “With its chambers and offices now cool and pleasant, some predicted, Congress would stay in session all year and pass the additional time making even longer and more tiresome speeches, enacting more laws, spending more money and running the national debt still higher,” Brinkley told his readers. “Longer sessions, they said, would mean more government and more taxes, more forms for the people to fill out and more bureaucrats hired to read and file them.” The Advocate ” Ha! I can imagine that bee was put in the congressional bonnet after noticing that other crooks like John Dillinger' were relaxing in refrigerated John Dillinger relaxing air.  Little did Brinkley know how prescient he was.  On the heels of the recently passed $25 billion dollar house-flipper bail-out bill, Democrats tried to double federal aid (to $5.1 billion/year) to help the poor pay heating and air-conditioning bills. It was defeated when Harry Reid was unable to get the 60 votes needed to stop debate.  See how easily that slipped past my lips?  " ... double federal aid to help the poor pay ... air-conditioning bills."  Which means of course that the federal beast is already paying some of those bills!