Miss Susie Goes to Washington

Dutch, Reformed blogged Ten years ago today, as I stood in the back of an ornate committee room in the nation's capital holding six-week-old Mary Margaret, Susie testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, which was considering a new $21 billion daycare plan. (She had been invited by Senator Don Nickles, who later wrote her a note praising her remarks.) Her testimony garnered coverage on News9, in the Tulsa World, and on the front page of The Oklahoman, and was printed on The Oklahoman's editorial page on Mother's Day. Here's what Susie (The Velvet Hammer) Dutcher told the committee:

.... I would love to put more dollars into our retirement account, for example, but I'm forced to put them into your Social Security trust fund, which I don't trust. I'd like to buy more books for Lincoln, Elizabeth, and Mary Margaret, and put more money in their college fund, but you've already seen fit to use that money funding closed-captioning for the Jerry Springer show. I'd love to get ballet lessons for Elizabeth, but my money is tied up buying food stamps for the deceased. I'd love to give more money to support our church's missionary in Albania, or the free medical clinic in Oklahoma City, but instead I'm forced to fund fish farming in Arkansas and Social Security disability payments for escaped convicts. Call us greedy, but my husband and I would like for the most part to make our own choices concerning the fruit of our labor. But naturally, under threat of imprisonment, we defer to your choices.....

Just think what she would say if she was allowed to testify today. The increased spending during the Bush administration was bad, but it is orders of magnitude worse today. They were worried about Mary Margaret then. Obama is spending Mary Margaret's inheritance, and the inheritance of Mary Margaret's children and grandchildren.

Hat tip to Michael Bates