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Saturday, December 06, 2003
Today, I am going to take a break from my blogging Sabbatical to express my disgust at our Congress, and their fiscal irresponsibility. Have you seen the content of the spending bill for 2004, $373 billion worth of waste. Never mind that I think 80% of what the government spends is waste. Let's look at some of the obvious pork...
$50 million for a rainforest project in... IOWA! Excuse me? Iowa is an agrarian state, not a tropical enclave. Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, had this fine piece of legislation added to the spending bill. This from project director David Oman: "There will be no facility like it in the United States. This will have a national scope and, yes, some federal assistance is appropriate." WRONG. The government should not be in the business of subsidizing pet projects, especially misplaced ones like this. You want a rainforest in the middle of Iowa? Get PRIVATE funding!
Jim Gibbons, another Republican spender, wants to toss $225,000 at a public pool problem. I might add that it is a problem that he helped cause as a child. Now, I'm not saying that he is culpable as a young child for something like that, but... well, here's what he has to say: "“I have an enormous guilty conscience for putting frogs in the swimming pool when I was about 10 years old... This is a very meritorious project, one that I am not embarrassed about at all." Well, Senator, you SHOULD be embarrassed. You want to assuage your conscience? PAY for it YOURSELF! It's not the mandate of the U.S. government to soothe the conscience of a man who destroyed a public pool drainage system 50 years ago. Got guilt? DEAL WITH IT.
This is just another example of how reckless public officials are with our money. It cuts across party lines. Dems, Reps, independents... it matters little. Grassley is supposed to be a fiscal CONSERVATIVE, for God's sake.
At some point, this waste has to end. This is why the line item veto would have been a godsend - for executive-imposed fiscal discipline. However, it wouldn't matter with this administration anyway. They have yet to veto a bill of any sort. I doubt a tool such as a line item veto would make much difference.
Labels: Archives_2003
.: posted by
Dave
3:15 PM
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