Not all eager to hop pork express
Not all eager to hop pork express by Robert Novak
The White House ''victory'' claim on the transportation bill is audacious. In 2004, Bush drew a $256 billion line in the sand, threatening a veto of either the Senate ($318 billion) or House ($275 billion) version. Just one year later, Bush's line advanced to $284 billion. The bill passed last week was listed at $286.5 billion. But as Flake pointed out, it really is $8.6 billion higher than that because of a budget gimmick.
The package's contents are worse than its label. President Ronald Reagan vetoed the 1986 bill because it contained around 150 items earmarked by individual lawmakers. The 2005 bill to be signed by Bush contains nearly 6,000 such earmarks. Many are pure pork: non-highway, non-rapid transit projects, including some that members of Congress accepted as their own after being sold on them by a professional lobbyist.
A random glance at a few earmarks and their House earmarkers shows that pork is bipartisan: $8 million for a parking facility at Harlem Hospital in New York City (Demo-crat Charles Rangel); $2.6 million for walkway and bikeway improvements along the New York City Greenway System in Coney Island (Democrat Jerrold Nadler); $1.3 million for sidewalk lighting and landscaping at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles (Democrat Henry A. Waxman); $1.3 million for a day care center and park-and-ride facility in Downstate Champaign. (Republican Tim Johnson); $480,000 to rehabilitate a historic warehouse in Lyons, N.Y. (Republican James T. Walsh); $200,000 for a historic trolley project at Issaquah, Wash. (Republican Dave Reichert).
Robert Novak is not a popular man right now, but he makes some great points here. Both the energy and transportation bills are examples of government at its worst. It amazes me that conservatives support this Congress and this President.
The White House ''victory'' claim on the transportation bill is audacious. In 2004, Bush drew a $256 billion line in the sand, threatening a veto of either the Senate ($318 billion) or House ($275 billion) version. Just one year later, Bush's line advanced to $284 billion. The bill passed last week was listed at $286.5 billion. But as Flake pointed out, it really is $8.6 billion higher than that because of a budget gimmick.
The package's contents are worse than its label. President Ronald Reagan vetoed the 1986 bill because it contained around 150 items earmarked by individual lawmakers. The 2005 bill to be signed by Bush contains nearly 6,000 such earmarks. Many are pure pork: non-highway, non-rapid transit projects, including some that members of Congress accepted as their own after being sold on them by a professional lobbyist.
A random glance at a few earmarks and their House earmarkers shows that pork is bipartisan: $8 million for a parking facility at Harlem Hospital in New York City (Demo-crat Charles Rangel); $2.6 million for walkway and bikeway improvements along the New York City Greenway System in Coney Island (Democrat Jerrold Nadler); $1.3 million for sidewalk lighting and landscaping at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles (Democrat Henry A. Waxman); $1.3 million for a day care center and park-and-ride facility in Downstate Champaign. (Republican Tim Johnson); $480,000 to rehabilitate a historic warehouse in Lyons, N.Y. (Republican James T. Walsh); $200,000 for a historic trolley project at Issaquah, Wash. (Republican Dave Reichert).
Robert Novak is not a popular man right now, but he makes some great points here. Both the energy and transportation bills are examples of government at its worst. It amazes me that conservatives support this Congress and this President.
Grace, Love & Peace August Ecklund at 2:12 PM
2 Comments:
As my grandpa used to say "Even a blind hog sometimes finds an acorn."
From the side of receiving federal grants, the hoops are amazing and the conditions to get payment currently absurd. The rules keep changing - private enterprise has to get involved in education - the product produced by govt schools will just not survive in the next rendition of life.
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