Liberty's Blog

Republicans Also have Huge Appetite for Pork

The new budget laden with pork passsed by a Republican controlled Congress and expected tobe signed by our Republican president. I can understand a deficit caused by the Iraqi war and the new programs instituted by the War on Terror since 9-11, but this pork is rediculous.

The spending plan awaiting President Bush)'s signature is packed with them, doling out $4 million for an Alabama fertilizer development center, $1 million each for a Norwegian American Foundation in Seattle and a "Wild American Shrimp Initiative," and more, much more.
They also raised the ire of Sen. John McCain , R-Ariz., a pork-barrel critic who took to the Senate floor to ask whether shrimp are so unruly and lacking initiative that the government must spend $1 million on them.


"Why does the U.S. taxpayer need to fund this `no shrimp left behind' act?" he asked.

McCain isn't known to be amongst the most conservative of Republicans is asking the Questions. Is Alabama's fertilizer interest in our national interest? If its so important, why isn't the industry paying for it?

...
Among items in the package: $335,000 to protect North Dakota's sunflowers from blackbirds, $2.3 million for an animal waste management research lab in Bowling Green, Ky., $50,000 to control wild hogs in Missouri, and $443,000 to develop salmon-fortified baby food.
...
Sen. Richard Shelby (news, bio, voting record), an Alabama Republican who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, won dozens of special items for his state — enough to fill 20 press releases.

We are paying to study animal shit?

In one aimed at northern Alabama, Shelby took credit for the $4 million budgeted for the International Fertilizer Development Center. "In addition to the important research conducted at this facility, the facility employs numerous Muscle Shoals-area residents,"
...
Missouri Republican Sens. Kit Bond and Jim Talent and Republican Rep. Jo Ann Emerson on Monday announced federal money for three-dozen projects in southern Missouri, including $50,000 for wild-hog control.


Ohio Reps. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a Democrat, and Steven LaTourette, a Republican, boasted about $350,000 for music education programs at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.


Nicole Williams, a spokeswoman for Tubbs Jones, said another lawmaker requested the money but Tubbs Jones supported it. With a deficit in Cleveland's public school system and music education among the programs getting cut, the museum aid could benefit the city as a whole, Williams said.
...
Alaska Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Ted Stevens claimed credit for channeling federal money to the state's salmon industry, including money to research use of salmon as a base for baby food.


"The goal is to increase the market for salmon by encouraging the production of more `value-added' salmon products," Murkowski's office said.

Michigan's two Democratic senators, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, let it be known they had won $4 million for an environmentally friendly public transportation system in Traverse City.

...

The Bill is expected to be signed by President Bush who hasn't seen a spending bill he didn't like.

When Bush first took office, he vowed to cut pet projects from the federal budget, but the president has yet to veto a single spending bill. He is expected to sign the new plan as well.

Obviously the Republicans aren't going to to any better at restricting goverment than the Democrats. If the Republicans are going to be the party of inflicting their interpertation of 'Christian Values' and favor big goverment spending, its going to be hard to support them anymore. W should remember the big issue that Clinton beat him over.

posted by Liberty @ 7:21 PM