While the majority of media attention about the various Iraq-war spending bills is on the battle of a time-table for troop withdrawal between the Democrat-led Congress and President Bush, more attention needs to be given to the 'pork' that has been added to the Democrat-sponsored bills, 'pork' the White House calls, "excessive and extraneous non-emergency spending."
Pork such as:
-billions of dollars in domestic spending for items such as farm drought relief, medical coverage for poor children and Gulf Coast hurricane recovery
-projects -- which range from the reconstruction of New Orleans levees to the building of peanut storehouses in Georgia
-$25 million for spinach growers hurt by last year's E. coli scare
-$500 million for wildfire suppression in the West
-$120 million for shrimp and Atlantic menhaden fishermen
-$15 million to prevent salt water from intruding on rice fields in Louisiana
And there's more as the NY Times Caucus Blog lists:
-$3 million for funding for sugar cane Hawaiian co-op
-$24 million for funding for sugar beets
-$2 million to the University of Vermont Education Excellence Program
-$25 million for the Safe and Drug Free Schools program
-$48 million for disaster reconstruction for NASA
-$13 million for mine safety research
-$25 million for asbestos abatement and tunnel repair at the Capitol Power Plant
-$640 million for LIHEAP
-$13.2 million for avian flu research and monitoring
-$3.5 million related to guided tours of the U.S. Capitol
-$22.8 million for geothermal research and development
-$12 million for forest service money (requested by the president in the non-emergency FY2008 budget)
What's going on? The Democrats are buying votes! Plain and simple. Even trying to buy the President's vote with the last one listed!
Here's an example that the Washington Post points out: "For more than a year, Rep. Charles Boustany Jr. (R) has tried unsuccessfully to secure federal funds to prevent salt water from intruding on rice fields in his lowland Louisiana district. So it came as a surprise last week when Boustany found $15 million in the House's huge war spending bill for his rice farmers. He hadn't even asked that the bill include it."
Fortunately Boustany not buying it. He said, "It gives me no satisfaction to vote against measures that I have been working for since even before [Hurricane] Katrina, but I cannot in good conscience vote for a bill that does this to our troops," Boustany said yesterday, decrying what he called the "cheap politics" of using disaster aid to win votes on a measure this controversial."
Isn't it interesting that Nancy Pelosi said in response to the President's refusal to sign the bill, "It is clear that the difference between the Democrats and the president is the issue of accountability. He will not accept any accountability or responsibility for what is happening (in Iraq)."
Ooops.
Pelosi also told reporters that Congress intends to send Bush another bill for $90 billion which will fund the war through the end of September. But the new bill will still try to change course in Iraq according to the Speaker.
John Bolten, former Ambassador to the UN, said the Democrats made the deal impossible for the president because of insisting on a timetable for a troop withdrawal. "Whether waiveable or not, timelines send exactly the wrong signal to our adversaries, to our allies and, most importantly, to the troops in the field."
Again, the Washington Post reported, "Republicans say the Democrats' failure to pass a "clean'' funding bill without any conditions has hurt military operations around the world by requiring Pentagon planners to juggle money among accounts. Democrats say there is enough money to fund Iraq operations into July -- more than enough time for the deadlock to be resolved."
I say, forget the strong-arming troop withdrawal requirements, cut the pork, and fund our soldiers!
Congress can come up with other bills for the 'pork' items and even on a time-table for troop withdrawal, but let's stop the 'unaccountable' antics of loading a much needed funding bill, now.
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