Our
View: Pork barrel politics takes over
Not
many spending bills seem to get a no vote
from El Presidente these days, everything
just seems to get passed on through. Whether
or not this is because Bush doesn't want
to make anybody angry or just because he
likes taking the national deficit to new
heights, the omnibus spending bill brings
this issue to a new head.
The
bill is full of pork barrel spending requests
for the home districts of several members
of congress. These include street furniture
and sidewalks in Alabama for $100,000 and
$44 million for a bridge to Treasure Island
in Florida. These are only two of the preposterous
spending bills that will go into effect
when the bill is passed.
In
all the bill will spend $328.1 billion on
various state projects exemplified by the
North Pole Transit System in Alaska for
$75,000, which is pennies compared to the
$6 million for the Police Athletic League.
All
of this stuff sounds really great, we're
sure that the people in Alabama and Florida
will be very happy with their bridges and
sidewalks. How can you begrudge a city or
state a sidewalk? But the issue here is
that we are in a giant hole of a deficit
and these things seem like they can wait
until after the country recovers. This is
ridiculous to the politicians apparently,
what's better than having a few extra points
with the constituents back home, and who
knows what is going to happen in next years
election, better get the money while Bush
has got his signing hand all warmed up.
But
people could only see a little passed the
end of their own nose, maybe someday we
can live in the real world, where there
seems to be no cash for anything but what
the politicians want.
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