Are we in the middle of a debt crisis? Depends on what you consider our spending priorities to be. While John Boehner and his ilk take a break from handing out tobacco checks on the floor of Congress to insist that we stop spending money on such things as "not letting senior citizens die in the streets," keep in mind that we're spending upwards of $100,000,000 year keeping criminals drinking brandy in fancy New York clubs.
Nope: not making that up. The May 2, 2011 The New Yorker has a fascinating story of a federal "confidential informant" who lived it up on the FBI payroll despite being a deadbeat dad, low-level criminal, and all-around con man; at least some of the cases based on the CI's claims were dismissed without convictions, which didn't stop the federal government -- in money approved by Boehner in the past -- from subsidizing the CI's activities.
The C.I.., who went by the name "Josef von Habsburg" had a Manhattan apartment and regularly went to fancy (and high-priced) New York clubs, all on the federal dollar. And it's not just him; other CI's are similarly questionable (as even a FOX station reported)... and the annual budget we spend on paying snitches to trump up charges against people so FBI agents can run for Congress?
$100,000,000.
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