A number of media outlets are doing excellent investigative reporting on Rep. Aaron Schock, Republican congressman of Illinois, and his misuse of taxpayer funds and campaign funds.  Somehow he forgot very soon that taxpayer funds are not his personal money.

I do wish that the media would take their obvious investigative skills and apply them to many politicians of both parties, including the president, because misuse of our tax money and campaign money appears to be rampant.  They should also investigate federal agencies for misuse of our money.

An easy place to start is to investigate Lois Lerner of the IRS, who made $175,000 per year also got over $40,000 in bonuses per year.  How would a government employee who already earned three and a half times the median household income deserve a bonus?  The bonuses are greater than what Rep. Schock appears to have misspent, and they spike her pension, which is especially punitive to us.

I thought I would put federal spending in context by comparing it to median household income:

In 1981, the federal budget was around $700 billion.  Today it is around $4 trillion.  That is up 471%.  In 1981, median household income was $17,743 and in 2012 it was $49,486, or up 178% so.  Federal spending increased 293% faster.  In 2007, the budget was $2.7 trillion, so in the past 7 years, the budget has increased 50% while median family income has essentially stayed flat during that period.

The economy has grown slowly since the end of the recession in June 2009, despite the massive spending increases, yet the president’s and Democrats' solution is to raise taxes and spending even more.  There is never enough.

I have always been for term limits, because I believe that too much power corrupts both parties.  They forget that it is our money, not theirs.  We need a boisterous media to investigate politicians and bureaucrats who misuse our money, and I hope the media investigates widely instead of cherry-picking one congressman.