Groundhogs in Congress?

This is something I've wanted to write about for a long time now but I had wanted to take the time to do some research; well, I've not had enough time to really "research" and was prompted earlier in the week to write something about this after seeing some of the Senate floor debate on the stimulus bill. Maybe this is just a weird pet peeve of mine but I really get angry when watching House and Senate floor debate or speeches (of course, most normal people don't watch these at all I suppose) and see the endless parade of silly, pointless charts and signs that congressmen use as "props" when speaking.

For a long time, I've wanted to try and find out just how much the government spends on producing all of these giant charts in both materials/printing and labor to design them. I suppose that compared to other types of government spending, this would be a drop-in-the-bucket so to speak but it seems just so wasteful and ineffective. Often, the signs/charts are simply comprised of large amounts of text that are kept up on the easel for so short of a period of time that no one would be able to read it, and this is apart from the fact that the text would most certainly be too hard to read from a distance. I am constantly wondering why they don't just invest in a nice projector and screen, a few laptops and some laser pointers and learn how to use Powerpoint! This would certainly save tons of ink and cardboard at the very least. What gets me the most though is how such a large proportion of these charts are either very poorly designed (to the point that they are laughable and thus completely ineffective) or just plain silly.

Here is my example from earlier in the week--Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, was giving a speech on the Senate floor about his opposition to the economic stimulus package. I had it streaming from C-SPAN on my computer but was not paying full attention; I happened to glance up a minute or two after Sen. Grassley had started speaking and managed to take the following screenshots:

Yes, a cartoon drawing of a groundhog followed by Bill Murray from the movie "Groundhog Day" in the scene where he abducts the groundhog to "free' him (the groundhog appears to be steering the car in the photo). Granted, Sen. Grassley was somehow using a groundhog day analogy in relation to the stimulus but c'mon? Not only are these charts just silly, but they were only up on display for 30 seconds at most. I wonder what happens to them afterwards...does the government have a big storage area for these things where a congressman can send an aide to look for a picture of a groundhog to use in a speech? Do they get thrown away? Recycled? I'd really be curious to know. Here are a few others, just for fun. I could find a million others...



This one was used by Representative Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon, during a 1-minute House floor speech on offshore drilling on September 16, 2008. He was using this picture to show President Bush with his Saudi Arabian "buddy," King Abdullah.

Here's one from Senator Byron Dorgan, D-North Dakota, used in a speech about the lack of transparency from the Fed and Treasury about the first bailout. Toward the middle of the speech, he used this poster for about a minute to compare the "old" economy to a house of cards with, literally, a house on top to stand for the mortgage crisis that triggered the rest of the house to fall down.