posted February 04, 2012 08:35 AM            

Anger against Congress, federal bureaucrats, lobbyists and all that is Washington has been boiling over in America’s Heartland—with good reason. The nation’s capital spews out toxic solutions to correct non-problems and never ceases to amaze with its hypocrisy. Too harsh? Here’s the proof: The Top 10 ways Washington annoys the Heartland.

1. Budgetary blues

Imagine, if you will, a major corporation trying to run itself without having a budget for three years. Its officials undoubtedly would be hauled into jail for violating Sarbanes-Oxley. Yet that is exactly what Washington is doing, as the Democratic-controlled Senate has bottled up passage of a budget for over 1,000 days—leading to endless battles over omnibus spending bills and continuing resolutions, both convenient vehicles for fiscal mischief.

2. Constitutional contempt

When the President unconstitutionally makes recess appointments with the Senate not in recess, what are the American people to think? In fact, the entire federal behemoth is based, in large part, on a total disregard for the Constitution, as the 9th and 10th Amendments—giving powers to the states—are routinely ignored.

3. Rotten on-the-job behavior

No wonder Americans are fed up—when they hear reports of federal workers who don’t pay taxes, Securities and Exchange officials viewing porn at work and Federal Aviation controllers falling asleep on the job. Why do government workers seem to be able to get away with things that would get employees in the private sector fired?

4. Regulatory overkill

The regulatory burden passed on to U.S. businesses and citizens by Washington is astounding. Companies need to hire armies of accountants and human resources’ personnel to keep up with the latest directive from the Department of Something. Do we really need Washington bureaucrats to tell a Nevada small businessman how much dust is allowed in his establishment?

5. Chevy Volt wreck

Let us connect the dots: the Obama administration used money from TARP that Congress passed to prevent a collapse of the banking system and bailed out General Motors. With its stake in the company, the government mandates the automaker to produce an electric car: the Chevy Volt. Despite massive government subsidies, Volt sales are virtually non-existent. The government covers up reports of Volt batteries catching fire when idle, long after minor fender-benders. Investigation, Rep. Issa?

6. ObamaCare apocalypse

The war over ObamaCare will forever be seen as the seminal battle between Washington and the Heartland, even with the final chapter yet to be written. The Democrats’ shoving their bureaucratic-nightmare-of-a-healthcare system down the throats of the American people helped to spawn the Tea Party and gave impetus to the 2010 Republican Party midterm tsunami. The arrogance of Pelosi’s “sign it, so we can know what’s in it,” and the Cornhusker Kickbacks, and Louisiana Purchases, riled a sleeping giant in the American electorate.

7. Energy nonsense

Politicians and public officials have been warning for some four decades about the United States’ dependence on imported oil, yet we are still vulnerable to Middle East nations that would like nothing better than to see America’s demise. Still, Washington has walled off much of our own resources from development and has strangled the energy sector with red tape. It’s time to tap the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, increase shale-oil and natural gas production and open more nuclear plants.

8. Spending nonsense

The American people understand the need to send some of their hard-earned dollars to Washington to fund the federal government. But when they see their money spent on pure nonsense, they have every reason to fume. Thank you, Sen. Harry Reid, for summing up the problem: The Cowboy Poetry Festival is the perfect example of what is wrong with Congress’s spending priorities.

9. Toxic tax code

The tax code has become so complicated that no one really understands it. Try reading the instructions for Form 4562 on Depreciation and Amortization and remain sane. Americans have reason to be indignant over the code’s complexity when it masks both corporate loopholes and wealth redistribution (in the form of the Earned Income Tax Credit.) President Reagan was right: Simplify the code, so that a return fits on a postcard.

10. Keystone Pipeline fiasco

The distortions coming from the Obama administration about its decision to disallow the construction of Keystone Pipeline XL are topped only by its hypocrisy. The President blamed Republicans for the pipeline’s demise, saying their demand he reach a decision in 60 days was unreasonable—even though the project had been under study for three years. Everyone knows that Obama is doing a favor for the deep-pocketed environmental lobby, at the cost of jobs for the American worker.