Sound Bites. Victor L. Cahn

      “Hah-hah!”

      “When was the last time Senator Harrington actually went shopping and paid cash for a loaf of bread or a carton of milk? When was the last time he bought clothes for his kids? Why do I have the feeling he doesn’t do that very often?”

      “Hah-hah!”

      “Somehow I doubt he’s worried about paying for medical care or finding a job.”

      “Hah-hah!”

      “Can he possibly know what it means to go hungry?”

      “No!”

      “Of course, he doesn’t. But we do!”

      “Yay!”

      “We know that if you run a house, you learn the value of money. You learn to spend wisely, to get a bang for your buck, and maybe to save a little. In other words, I have a few lessons for Senator Harrington and his Washington buddies who throw out our dollars as if we have an endless supply. We don’t! Right?”

      “Right!”

      “So what’s our message to Senator Harrington and his fat cat friends?”

      “Hndsoff!”

      “What?”

      “HANDS OFF!”

      “Hands off, Senator! HANDS OFF!”

      ¶ ¶ ¶

      “In an interview today, Senator Harrington seemed to reply directly to Ms. McClellan’s accusations.”

      “I would never denigrate Ms. McClellan’s experience, but may I suggest that my years of formulating budgets for cities, states, and the federal government have provided a measure of insight that Ms. McClellan, for all her domestic skills, has not yet acquired.”

      “Yes, but doesn’t she have a point—”

      “It’s easy to claim that shopping for food and clothes teaches fiscal responsibility. It’s quite another thing to apportion hundreds of billions of dollars for national security when the purchases in question are, among others, sophisticated weapons systems that have to be evaluated.”

      “Yet she does have a point—”

      “If she believes that Washington is out of touch—”

      “I think she does—”

      “– that sometimes we spend money on projects that may not have immediate impact—”

      “And never will—”

      “I agree with her! Look, I’ve been fighting for years against such waste—”

      “And yet you yourself voted for several expenditures—”

      “It happens to all of us.”

      “Could you give me an example—”

      “Look, I admit that I’ve voted to fund a few small projects that I didn’t necessarily support—”

      “Like our state muskrat museum—”