Taxpayers may have the impression that government agencies just throw money around -- and with good reason. The Washington Examiner reports the Treasury Department "has rebuffed a request by House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to explain $3 billion in payments that were made to health insurers even though Congress never authorized the spending through annual appropriations."

"I think almost everybody I know cannot live without having a paycheck one time -- members of Congress, even." - House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, arguing against a partial shutdown of the Homeland Security department. Pelosi has a net worth of $58 million.

"When the final accounting is done, 2014 will have been the most lethal year for global terrorism in the 45 years such data has been compiled." - Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
"We are actually living in a period of less daily threat to Americans and to people in the world than normally." - Secretary of State John Kerry.