Congressional Chow Down

It's time again for the annual budget pork feed in Washington. This loutish swinefest respects no party affiliation or moral high ground. Pig sooey, baby.

The Prez wants to trim 17 billion dollars of fat and our Congress is having none of it. I have been looking at the H.R. 1105 Omnibus Appropriations Act which I link to here.

Some of the lowlights so far, since I have barely skimmed the thing (it's fifteen hundred pages long) include:

Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) vows to force the White House to accept delivery of a new presidential helicopter the President says he neither needs or wants. The helicopter program, which cost $835 million this year, supports 800 jobs in Hinchey's district.

$130,000 dollars so that the good folks in Gainesville, Florida can study Hawaiian termites.

$500,000 so that kids in Charles, County, MD. can have a classroom astronomy project.

Over $4,000,000.00 for smoke detector upgrades in the Library of Congress.

$1,939,084,000 dollars to the DEA. Big Business, no wonder they need the war on drugs.

Steny Hoyer wants money to study Blue Crabs.

$196,000.00 to the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.

1.2 million dollars for an airport in Akutan Island off Alaska, a tiny remote island that has a factory that seasonally processes fish. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)

U.S. Rep Sanford Bishop (D- GA) wants us to spend 1.2 million dollars to encourage children and aging adults to eat more peanuts for"health reasons". Bishop is also requesting $200,000.00 to study why people won't eat more goat meat.

Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss wants to spend $3 Billion smackers on the F-22 Raptor jet that the Defense Department says it doesn't need or want. Oh ya, it is made in his home district of Marrietta, GA.

$1.2 Billion for international food aid. How about starting here at home?

$499,000 to conserve and restore paintings on the walls of the Capitol. For a single budget year? Are we nuts?

$100,000 for neurofeedback work for troubled youths in Douglasville, GA.

$5,700,000 for email restoration services at the White House.

$200,000 for tattoo removal in Mission Hills, CA - Laudable but why do we have to pay for it?

$317 million dollars allotted to alleviate factors that would make a women decide not to carry a baby to term. The heading for this bill is reducing abortions. Why are we subsidizing this? Are there not enough Americans being born as it is? Another case of the righteously moral trying to impose their views on the rest of us. Don't believe in abortion, don't have one...

Farm state leaders are typically demagogic about any cuts in the large agri-business subsidies while elected representatives whose districts are involved in defense expenditures croon a similar tune.

There appears to be tons of money still going to faith based programs. I personally am against these expenditures.  Don't spend my tax dollars to proselytize. 

If you can stomach it, scroll through the pdf. (you may have to use Adobe Reader) It's fascinating.