While Democrats obsess over the firing of a handful of U.S. attorneys by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, a far more outrageous scandal is breaking out on Capitol Hill. I’m talking about all the new pork senators are hanging on the “emergency” war supplemental bill, all in the name of “national security.”
The Senate is trying to add $18.7 billion in additional spending above what President Bush has requested. In other words, wartime money the Commander-in-Chief didn’t ask for.
Probably the most outrageous is a request for $100 million in “emergency spending” for the 2008 Republican and Democrat national conventions. As I put in a blast-faxed letter to senators today, “These events are not emergencies and, if additional funding is warranted, Congress should provide those funds through the regular appropriations process rather than adding to the national debt.”
Ever since 9/11, Members of Congress have been using the war on terror as an excuse to pile on all kinds of new programs which have nothing to do with the war on terror and would have no chance of passing if not slipped into a war appropriations bill. Now THAT’S a scandal.
Spending $100 million of taxpayer money to fund a pair of party conventions - which are nothing more than Hollywood-scripted, made-for-TV shows these days - and twisting it into some kind of homeland security necessity, let alone an EMERGENCY, is simply unconscionable.
Fortunately, Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, is introducing an amendment to strip out this galling appropriation from the bill. A Coburn spokesman, John Hart, told National Journal that “Members will have to make a difficult choice between booze and balloons or body armor and bullets,” adding with all due sarcasm, “Were the appropriators taken by surprise by the presidential conventions?”
In addition to the money being requested for the Republican and Democrat national conventions, there’s pork in there for “money for sugar beet and sugar cane producers; and $40 million for the tree assistance program, including aid to Christmas tree producers.”
The Washington Examiner notes the bill includes “money for spinach growers, peanut storage and citrus farmers.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., joked that the bill contains “enough in each of the four food groups for a balanced meal.”
Exactly HOW this pork protects us from dirty bombs and planes flying into skyscrapers is beyond me. Unlike the Gonzalez “scandal,” this one is real. And expensive.
Posted on March 27th, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National
Chuck,
Take a look at H.R. 1268 “Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Defense, The Global War on Terror…” from March 4, 2005. There are 257 ammendments to this piece of legislation which include getting more “alien” farm workers into Georgia (Saxby Chambliss R-GA).
As you are aware, this was a Republican controlled Congress.
Did you ‘blast fax letters’ to the Republican leadership in 2005?
Chuck,
Republican Congress in 2004 spent $65,000,000 US tax dollars on the Republican National Committees 2004 Convention in NYC.
No Emergency There an added to federal debt.
Hope you blasted some fax letters to the Republican leadership about that!
Chuck,
How about the 2006 “Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Defense, the Global War on Terror…” H.R. 4939, signed into law by Bush 6/15/06. 321 ammendments!!, including S.Amend 3616, $74,000,000 for some damn agriculture nonsense. This was passed by a REPUBLICAN controlled Congress.
Hey, if you want to pin the tail on ALL the participants, I’m okay with that. If you just want to report that this is a Democratic Congress issue…I have to strongly disagree.