Thursday, October 02, 2008

Christmas in October! Pork as Usual from OUR Representatives?

Politicians can't help but be politicians and if you don't believe that look at the latest bill from the Senate. A $700 billion bail out...that's $700,000,000,000...bailout that they claim is need in this time of emergency to save America is a perfect opportunity to sneak in some good ol'fashioned pork. And with over $100 billion...that's $100,000,000,000...they can buy a lot of pork. Now to be fair, I don't know if all these items are really pork or not...it just wanted to add a little hyperbole. The point is...the Senate is pushing a huge spending bill of $700 billion through with very little discussion. A 451 page document was created and in less than a day Senators were supposed to read it, analyze it, and vote on it. Needless to say, most would not read the whole thing. In a time of "emergency" such as this why would you throw in over $100 billion in spending that has nothing to do with the bailout? Of course you want to seize an opportunity to get your agenda passed with out having an honest discussion on the issue. It's like asking a drowning man "Do you want me to get you a life jacket and take $100 bucks from your wallet?" What is the drowning man going to say? That is why they are politicians. That is why they lack character. But do we really care? Do Americans really care? Will we remember this when it comes time for reelection. I don't care if what they were asking for would benefit me or my state directly or not; it was cheap, sleazy, backroom politics and they need to be held accountable. Unfortunately both Obama and McCain vote for it and Bush likes it. Here is a list of some of them:

* $223M for Alaskan Fisherman
* $192M for Rum Producers in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
* $128M for Auto Racing
* $33M for companies operating in American Samoa
* $10M for film & TV production
* $6M for producers of Wooden Arrows
* Tax credit for employees in Hurricane Katrina disaster area
* Tax incentives for investments in poor neighborhoods in D.C.
* Increased rehabilitation credit for buildings in Gulf area
* Reduction of import duties on some imported wool fabrics, transfers other duties to Wool Trust Fund to promote competitiveness of American wool

Here's an interesting bit...the Bush bill was 3 pages long, the House's bill was 100 pages but the Senate not wanting to be outdone decided to add 350 more pages!

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