"CLOSE THE BUFFET !! "

My wife and I enjoy going out for dinner. As I advance in age it seems my dinner hour has become progressively earlier, I guess that comes with age. About once a week we go out. My wife is a deal finder and she can tell me where all the "specials" are and what the constraints of each "special" is. Time limits, age requirements, and days of the week are common provisos of these "special" deals.

Many restaurants now have the "all you can eat" option on their menus, or the "unlimited salad bar", as an added attraction for their diners. The "all you can eat" variety can consist of fried chicken, beef, tacos, pizza, barbecue, pasta, pancakes, sausage, bacon, grits, etc.; this is usually coupled with all the dinner trimmings such as potatoes of all types, bread and rolls, hot vegetables, soups, and cold meats and cheeses. If this is not enough we have the dessert section; a virtual sea of calories, ice cream, cake of every type, brownies, pudding, cookies, and tortes.

As a diabetic and a sufferer of high cholesterol I'm limited as to what I can eat (actually my wife yells at me), so the "all you can eat" option is not too good for me. As most of you know I'm Italian and eating is very important to us! Well I am forced to choose wisely or suffer the consequences, which can be quite uncomfortable, and dangerous. I could eat everything I wanted and be "happy" for a short time and then go to the hospital; or I could use my brain and live to eat another day. Its all about choice!

Pending legislation is kind of like that all you can eat buffet, everything is laying in front of the prospective "diners" in all its glory. It is a political glutton's paradise, an ocean of taxpayer money and it is all yours. "What do I want?,How much can I eat?"; this is a question many of our representatives ask themselves as they "pick up their plate".

This is an indictment of both parties; there are countless examples of this type of behavior on both sides of the aisles of Congress. Why can't the bills that are voted on in Congress be limited to the actual subject being addressed? Why must each legislator get his "piece of the action"?

We are in the middle a situation of "economic diabetes", and our nation must watch our "diet" or we face a fiscal "coma" that we may not recover from. Democrats and Republicans alike must begin to exercise good judgement in legislation, forget about personal "pork" and work only for national interest. If current practices continue we will end up with a fatal attack on our "digestive system". The days of "All You Can Eat!" must come to an end!!