$13 Billion in Pork Added to Emergency Spending Bill For Iraq War
Let’s face it, Congress is addicted to spending as much as any addict is hooked on crack cocaine. They took a $95 billion emergency spending bill earmarked for the war in Iraq and added on another $13 billion in pork. Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer of California are some of the worst offenders of loading pork on bills. President Bush has said he will veto this spending bill because of the additional earmarks. Look at this story by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Feinstein voted to throw some $200 million at giant defense contractor Northrop Grumman for Katrina-related losses insurers would not reimburse. She also voted for a $700 million earmark to bankroll the rebuilding of a Mississippi rail line — that had already been rebuilt after Katrina.
Last year, Feinstein voted against a Coburn bid to reallocate $452 million in transportation earmarks — including the infamous Alaskan “Bridge to Nowhere” — so that the money could be used for Katrina relief. She also voted to protect a $950,000 parking garage in Oklahoma and a $500,000 sculpture park in Seattle. Feinstein at least did vote to cut the $15 million seafood pork.
Citizens Against Government Waste notes that California has $733 million in pork in the 2006 budget includeing $3.6 million for ‘grape research.’
I really enjoyed the last part of the article.
Blame Bush for not vetoing a spending bill before. Blame GOP leaders for abandoning their principles and burning through tax dollars. But also, blame Boxer and DiFi — who is spending like a drunken sailor while facing re-election — for figuring, they’ll scratch Alaska’s back, so Alaska will throw scratch back.
After all, it’s not their money.
Hat tip to Steve Bartin at Newsalert
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