The good news is that the economy isn’t as awful as we’ve been hearing. If it were, left-wing knuckleheads wouldn’t be able to cough up $200,000 and travel expenses in order to persuade Hillary Clinton to deliver a speech.

But, politics aside, can you imagine paying that kind of money to listen to that whiny voice drone on for an hour or so? It also gives new meaning to greed. After all, in the first ten years after the Clintons moved out of the White House, through his speeches and their ghost-written books, they accumulated $100,000,000. On top of that, after spending $10 million of their own money to get Hillary the nomination in 2008, they demanded that the DNC hold fund-raisers in order to replenish their coffers. After all, Arkansas’s gift to the world couldn’t really be expected to get by on a piddling $90 million, even though some of us couldn’t help asking, “What difference, at this point, does it make?”

Speaking of wasting large amounts of money, why does the GOP-controlled House keep voting to repeal ObamaCare? At last count, they had held 40 such votes. Why don’t they just tie a knot in the purse strings and refuse to fund the abominable bill?

And why have they stood by while the number of people receiving food stamps soared from 28 million in 2008 to 48 million today, while the cost of this bit of socialistic insanity has risen from $38 billion annually to $81 billion?

Some might say that the House doesn’t have the authority to do these things, but these days politicians seem to have whatever power they say they have. In California, for instance, the Democrats who control the governor’s mansion, the senate and the assembly refused to enforce Proposition 8, meaning that the Supreme Court could rule that those who represented the voters opposed to same-sex marriages had no legal standing. Instead, they kicked the case back to the ultra- liberal appeals court that had already ruled in favor of the travesty.

On a national level, Obama went to war with Arizona after he had refused to do his constitutional duty by closing the sieve that pretends to be a border. More recently, Obama decided that he had every right to break the law by postponing the employer mandate portion of ObamaCare to some date, any date, just so long as it’s after next year’s midterm elections.

The Pentagon, which has become as politically correct as the ACLU, has already shown its true colors by turning a blind eye to Major Nidal Hasan until he went on a murderous rampage. But now it appears they’ve squandered $400 million over the past decade protecting the habitat of gophers and other rodents around military bases. Perhaps the brass is angling for a plaque from the Sierra Club. But it’s a sad day when the military seems so much more concerned with the welfare of forest vermin, homosexuals and jihadists, than it is with its injured vets. I say it’s high time they started caring more about wounded PFCs than with being PC.

I still can’t get over Marco Rubio allowing himself to be suckered into being the front man for the Gang of 8. Until then, I had thought Rubio was a pretty savvy fellow. But how can any conservative believe that Obama will actually do anything about shutting down the border? It’s bad enough that Ronald (“Trust but verify”) Reagan got conned by the Democrats 27 years ago. That was truly embarrassing, but to keep running up like Charlie Brown to kick the football is unforgivable.

I hate to say it, but any Republican who’s too dumb to recognize that if Chuck Schumer put on a dress and puffed up his hair, he would look exactly like Lucy, Charlie Brown’s eternal nemesis, doesn’t deserve to be re-elected.

But I don’t blame the liberals. Why should they slam the door on millions of peons yearning to vote for any creep with a (D) after his name?

It would be tantamount to cutting down a money tree in order to make room for a turnip patch or killing the goose that lays golden eggs for Thanksgiving dinner. And only Republican politicians are that stupid.

Author’s Note: Although I’m still seeking sponsors, my online radio show is on the air, every Wednesday, at 1 p.m. That’s L.A. time. Access www.latalkradio.com, channel 1, and click on Listen Live. You can also download to your iPhone or Android apps. The call-in number is (323)203-0815. I’d like to hear your questions and comments, pro or con. Especially pro.