HB 2005: Housing Trust Fund

Virginia House Bill 2005 funds yet another appointed, not elected, board without which we could probably survive, and which will cost us money. It passed both the House and the Senate...this is getting downright repetitious.

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?131+ful+HB2005H2

A lot of things at lis.virginia.gov this year sound as if our legislators had read as far in Broke as the point where Glenn Beck proposes transferring to the state and local governments many of the responsibilities not mentioned in the Constitution, but simply assumed by the federal government in the twentieth century...and said to themselves, "Let's save Uncle Sam from himself!" without asking whether Aunt Ginnie could afford to throw money around the way Uncle Sam's been doing. I don't like it.

I shouldn't need to bore anybody by repeating this theme every time I see a waste of money. Youall know I'm a frugality fanatic; youall know that during years when I've had a good income I've bought more books and given more to good causes, and remained car-free, and bought good clothes and worn them until they wear out, and so on, very much the way I did in 2011 when I had virtually no income at all; youall know I'm available as a frugality consultant to help you avoid wasting money too. Anyone who needs further clarification should, by all means, hire me.

Then again, if the world was as it should be, the legislators wouldn't have to bother hiring me as a frugality consultant. Nobody's asking the Commonwealth of Virginia to live like a serious candidate for the All-American Tightwad Championship. Although I appreciate the spirit of Grover Cleveland's reply to people who begged for federal disaster relief, I think that, until we've changed our culture back to one where people feel personally ashamed if their neighbors are destitute, we should try to finance medical care and education and retirement pensions. All I'm asking the legislators to do is not add any new expenses to our burdened budget. They do not need a consultant to explain that.

In view of which...well, 99 Delegates and 39 Senators are in no way accountable to me, and even the ones who are accountable to me are accountable to other people too, but I must say that it's starting to sound as if some of our legislators need a good long break from legislating.