Roger Clemens, Steroids in Baseball, and Congressional Hearings

I have been listening to this crap about steroids in baseball, and how Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee are dueling it out in a Congressional committee hearing. Frankly, I want to puke. I understand that steroids use by these sport stars set bad examples for our younger generations, and I agree that the MLB should do what its part in abolishing this from their system.

But why are we spending our tax money on entertainment? I can think of a few things that I would rather spend my tax dollars on. For example:

Our environment
Our economy
Our health care system
Our educational system
Our infrastructure

I know that our government is working on these issues as well, but it’s disappointing to see that not all of their efforts are going toward the most important issues. In the end, do you really care about who use steroids in sports if you can’t breath clean air, has no job, can’t afford medical care, can’t read, and our bridges are falling down?

This post was featured in:

The Carnival of Political Punditry – February 17, 2008 hosted by I’m A Pundit Too. For more information please visit the Carnival of Political Punditry.

15 Comments

FFB
February 12, 2008, 11:09

I totally agree (even posted about it myself). It seems that it’s more important for congress to work on steroids than work on the government issues. Guess it’s an easy thing to target. Maybe more people would pay attention to baseball than the economy? I dunno but I think it’s a huge waste!
Steve
February 12, 2008, 11:52

There are a number of reasons Congress can justify spending time on this issue: MLB has a federal anti-trust exemption, many games are broadcast over airwaves controlled by the FCC, legalized wagering takes place on baseball games, etc.
Congress has every right, end even the obligation, to ensure the product on the field (the game) is decided in a fair, honest manner (without performance enhancing drugs).
The same type of arguments can made with regard to the NFL and Spygate.
With that said, I’d much rather see our elected leaders doing something with their time and our money that provide benefit to the entire population of the country. As far as I’m concerned these hearings are no different than the pork barrel legislation that gets passed all the time.
David
February 12, 2008, 12:30

I agree 100% Pinyo, it’s crap. We don’t have the time or money for “real” issues, but we do for steroids in baseball? Ridiculous.
Mrs. Micah
February 12, 2008, 14:29

I think we could handle cutting down NASA too. If we can’t fix the world we have, how much should we spend on the rest of the universe?
rocketc
February 12, 2008, 15:06

I think NASA would do just fine as a private company. The research and technology that come from NASA benefit many different areas of life. But our tax dollars don’t need to go there.
I’m with you Pinyo, let baseball handle it’s problems without congress. . .although I would rather they be distracted by sports than spending time trying to raise my taxes.
Pinyo
February 12, 2008, 17:20

@Steve – Thank you for the insight, but I think in the end we agree that this baseball hooplah only concerns/benefits a few; whereas the issues I listed affect as all.
@Mrs. Micah – I can’t believe you said that. You don’t follow SciFi? Ultimately, it’s the more enlightened alien race that will save us from our problems. Well, unless you run into bad aliens, then it won’t matter.
Lynnae @ Being Frugal
February 12, 2008, 17:43

I totally agree with you. The higher ups in baseball should have handled this a long time ago. Regardless, though, our country has enough financial problems without pouring money into this.
Ron@TheWisdomJournal
February 12, 2008, 19:36

Has anyone figured out how much all this investigation costs? Then again, maybe I really don’t want to know . . .
RacerX
February 12, 2008, 20:16

All of the stuff you listed are distractions, meant to distract us from the real issues.
Frankly I would cut a ton out before NASA, BTW. It is a great tech lab for the country. Not to mention how many people have become engineers due to the program. That being said it has been poorly managed since 1971. It needs a wholesale shake up.
Wanna be really scared see how much of the Federal Education Budget goes to students outside of Pell Grants…
FourPillars
February 12, 2008, 20:31

I agree – I’m sometimes amazed at the names I see that are called before “congressional hearings” . It’s seems like you have to be rich and famous before that happens.
Mike
fathersez
February 12, 2008, 23:22

Well, it looks like its not only the US Government that works this way, seemingly having no priorities at all.
My Government is getting itself well known for this.
We are building a gazillion Ringgit sports centre in London, when our sports guys get whipped by next door Myanmar.
Our Universities are getting lower and lower ratings each passing year, and our Authorities seem to consider these ratings fixed!
Like someone once said, If the Government were to be put in charge of the Sahara Desert, we will run out of sand in 5 years!
Money Blue Book
February 13, 2008, 3:57

Personally, whenever I hear the phrases “baseball player” and “steroids” linked in the same sentence, I immediately think – Guilty! And then I flip the channel because baseball is so boring to watch. Sigh…I’m sad football season is over…how am I going to survive until the fall……luckily there is the Olympics rolling by this summer.
Adfecto
February 14, 2008, 10:47

I’m completely with you on this. What the heck does Congress have to do with these topics? If Arlen Spector was from my district I’d boot him out ASAP. There are real issues that need to be addressed not this crap. We have laws on the books to deal with using, possessing, dispensing and distributing these drugs. This matter is for the Drug Enforcement Agency (which still is not exactly my personal favorite agency or legal initiative).
I completely disagree with those railing against NASA. It is everybody’s favorite punching bag when it comes to spending, but it does some great things. It is a technology incubator, it spurs innovation, it funds important research that helps all of us. The very visible shuttle program is only a tiny part of the work that gets done. All of this costs less than 0.135% of the gross domestic product and only 0.6% of the total Federal Budget. Each American taxpayer kicks in an average of $60 a year to fund NASA. That about a cup of coffee each morning (and I don’t means Starbucks either).
Please take some time to read up on all of the things NASA does and how it is actually accomplished for a very reasonable (I’d say small) amount of money.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/...../nasa.html
http://www.badastronomy.com/ba.....ans-think/
Pinyo
February 15, 2008, 21:16

@Ron – The government has analysts whose sole purpose is to keep track of those things
@Fathersez – Where are you located? Bangladesh? I am from the other side of Burma…Thailand
@Adfecto – All joking aside. I used to be an Astronomy geek in college and I support NASA spending. I think it’s cool to push ourselves to th limit.
Paul
February 18, 2008, 15:25

This actually is a health care issue and that’s the only reason why Congress became involved in the first place. Congress holds hearings like this all the time but the only reason we know about this one is because it involved a famous baseball player.