I’ve got a great idea: let’s give our federal government <em>even more power!</em>

From the government that brought you Solyndra:

Cost, need questioned in $433-million smallpox drug deal

A company controlled by a longtime political donor gets a no-bid contract to supply an experimental remedy for a threat that may not exist.

Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work.

Senior officials have taken unusual steps to secure the contract for New York-based Siga Technologies Inc., whose controlling shareholder is billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, one of the world’s richest men and a longtime Democratic Party donor.

Hmm…Perelman. I think Fred missed that one, too.

This next part seems important, too:

If there were an attack, the government could draw on $1 billion worth of smallpox vaccine it already owns to inoculate the entire U.S. population and quickly treat people exposed to the virus. The vaccine, which costs the government $3 per dose, can reliably prevent death when given within four days of exposure.

So lemme see if I’ve got this straight: we’ve already got a billion dollars worth of a vaccine we already know will work, but we’re going to spend nearly half a billion more to create a vaccine that might not work – and there’s no way for us to test it – even if we ever needed it, which we probably won’t.

But we have to raise taxes on the rich in order to pay teachers, right? In order to fill potholes, and keep cops on the streets.

Got it.