The Pujols Bridge to Nowhere

The President of the United States earns $400,000. a year.

The Anaheim Angels baseball club is going to pay Albert Pujols 25 million dollars a year, for the next ten years.

The replacement bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis cost about $350 million dollars.

Let me see if I can get this right: President Obama could pay for that bridge in 800 or 900 years. (He could live off his book royalties until he gets the bridge paid for.) Ol' Albert, on the other hand, could pay for the bridge in . . . let's see . . . about 14 years. Except that Albert's contract is only for ten years. He would come up a bit short. Maybe A-Rod, with the Yankees, could pitch in. He earns even more than Albert.

In Minnesota, our legislature debated fiercely about raising the gasoline tax--as I recall--about a cent and a half a gallon to pay for road and bridge repair. Oh, Lord, that was hard work! The public howled. Oil companies raise the price of gasoline twenty cents a gallon overnight, and we give them subsidies!

And schools! Think of what they cost! And health care! And old people who insist on eating something!

Yep! The Tea Party is right. Government is ruining us. Except for wars. Government is good for wars. Albert Pujols can't declare war on Syria, or Iran, or somebody. He has a bridge to pay for!

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