Right. If the Democrats in Congress can’t solve the Iraq problem to their satisfaction by engaging in honest debate in the House and the Senate, they’ll do the next best thing.
They’ll strangle the President’s war funding request with pork! From Bloomberg.com:
President George W. Bush’s first spending fight with the Democratic-controlled Congress may come over the Iraq war—and avocados and cattle and flood protection.
[…]
Lawmakers are pushing to add billions of dollars to the administration’s war-funding request to meet a host of unrelated demands, including those from California fruit farmers hit by freezing temperatures, ranchers whose livestock were killed in Colorado blizzards and children poised to lose their health insurance.
[…]
The potential add-ons threaten a battle in the coming weeks with the White House. Bush has never vetoed a spending measure, and Democrats, betting he won’t veto one paying for the war, see a way to aid a number of constituencies seeking federal aid.
[…]
‘There are urgent, emergency situations that have to be addressed,’ said Senator Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat.
[…]
Senator Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, said the extra spending is ‘fiscally irresponsible and it’s blatantly unseemly.’
[…]
‘We’re supposed to be fighting this war and paying for the troops—making sure they have what they need,’ he said. ‘We’re not supposed to be paying for avocado growers.’
[…]
Democrats voted last month to drop thousands of pet projects, called ‘earmarks’ or ‘pork,’ from a $463 billion annual spending measure. Gregg said the calls for adding to the Iraq measure, which have come from Republicans and Democrats alike, looked like pork to him.
[…]
Bush last month requested $103 billion in emergency spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for Hurricane Katrina relief, a proposal that would bring total spending on the war on terror to more than $600 billion. The House Appropriations Committee will take up the measure as early as March 9. Its Senate counterpart is slated to begin its work later this month.
And I thought Nancy Pelosi was against earmarks….
Bastards! This pisses me off!
Hat tip to my brother Greg. Click on the image below to go to Porkbusters.org.
Bloggers fighting pork!
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