Commentary

Which are the Worst Bloodsuckers: Bedbugs or Politicians?

Lest you fear that the government is unprepared to address the next scourge sure to shake the nation to its core, rest assured that federal officials are using your tax dollars to address the serious problem of . . . bedbugs. According to an Associated Press article,

With the most effective pesticides banned, the government is trying to figure out how to respond to the biggest bedbug outbreak since World War II.

Bedbugs live in the crevices and folds of mattresses, sofas and sheets. Then, most often before dawn, they emerge to feed on human blood.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently hosted its first-ever National Bed Bug Summit. And, as the AP article reports, Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) is planning to reintroduce legislation to “expand grant programs to help public housing authorities cope with infestations.” The bill will be called the– I kid you not–“Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite Act.”

It seems that the real bloodsuckers are the politicians and bureaucrats in Washington wasting taxpayer money on such programs. Then again, wasn’t it the Founding Fathers who said that “all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness–and the Freedom from Bedbugs”?