About time

U.S. Representatives Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) formally requested the House Government Reform Committee to investigate recent incidents in which American citizens were denied entrance to or were removed from taxpayer-funded Presidential events open to the public because of their political beliefs.

Read their letter here.

And speaking of those events....

President Bush has been barnstorming the country trying to sell the public on his plan to privatize Social Security. Some have wondered how much all his events cost - with the government in serious deficit, and the president claiming Social Security faces a funding crisis, you might think he'd be frugal with the taxpayer money he is spending on these Hollywood-style event. To get an idea of just how much taxpayer money he is spending to promote his plan, check out these stats:

Click here for this David Sirota blog post for the estimates. The use of Air Force One alone costs us taxpayers $55,000 per hour - that's apparently about what Social Security pays out in an entire year for five recipients. Maybe the program could last longer if we ground Georgie Butthead and put the money we save into SS.

Oh, and by the way, Buttface billed the Office of Family Assistance over $200,000 to help pay for trips he made to promote welfare reform, and which just happened to be in locations where he could do some fundraising for GOP cronies while he was there. $200,000 that we paid in taxes to feed poor kids.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.