March 23, 2007
Democrats pass pork laden Iraqi pullout bill
The democrats in the house have passed the pork laden bill that sets a timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq. This bill was supposed to have been a troop funding bill, but it includes the following pork:
$500 million for emergency wildfires suppression; the Forest Service currently has $831 million for this purpose;
$400 million for rural schools;
$283 million for the Milk Income Loss Contract program;
$120 million to compensate for the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the shrimp and menhaden fishing industries;
$100 million for citrus assistance;
$74 million for peanut storage costs;
$60.4 million for salmon fisheries in the Klamath River region in California and Oregon;
$50 million for asbestos mitigation at the U.S. Capitol Plant;
$48 million in salaries and expenses for the Farm Service Agency;
$35 million for NASA risk mitigation projects in Gulf Coast;
$25 million for spinach growers;
$25 million for livestock;
$20 million for Emergency Conservation Program for farmland damaged by freezing temperatures;
$16 million for security upgrades to House of Representatives office buildings;
$10 million for the International Boundary and Water Commission for the Rio Grande Flood Control System Rehabilitation project;
$6.4 million for House of Representative's Salaries and Expenses Account for business continuity and disaster recovery expenses;
$5 million for losses suffered by aquaculture businesses including breeding, rearing, or transporting live fish as a result of viral hemorrhagic septicemia;
$4 million for the Office of Women's Health at the Food and Drug Administration; and
A minimum wage increase, which is the subject of separate legislation.
This bill also sets a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq for next year. Luckily the vote total was 218-212 (basically along party lines) so they do not have the votes to overturn a Presidential veto. Speaking of vetoes this is what President Bush has to say about this bill:
"The purpose of the emergency war spending bill I requested was to provide our troops with vital funding. Instead, Democrats in the House, in an act of political theater, voted to substitute their judgment for that of our military commanders on the ground in Iraq."
Posted by TrueSoldier at March 23, 2007
11:54 AM | Email This
1. The Democrats lack a victory strategy for the war on terrorism. They avoid debating the merits of the liberation of Iraq.
2. There bill will never make it through the Senate, much less by the Prsident's desk. They are all show, no go.
They are use to live in a world of continual pork, and never ever are far from it.
Yawn, Yawn!
3. It seems obvious that the US has done everything(and succeeded doing so) that was the purpose of going to Iraq. (1)Saddam is gone, (2)WMD's are gone, and (3)All UN mandates have been met. It was never put to the public that we were going to war to create a new Iraq. If creating 'good' countries from 'bad,' then the US should begin to express that intention with our policies - Openly!
and let the people decide if they wish to back such a policy. As for the "pork" in the bill, this legislation is "left-over pork" from the last (republican) congress. Using this vote
merely got rid of Old business that is obvious in need of appropriation under last year's debates. To say this is a New tack-on is just not true. I am not that familiar with the silly-sounding ones like the spinach growers, Milk Loss Contract, and the aquaculture business losses. But to cite many as pork is devilish in nature (such as Katrina spending, NASA Gulf Mitigation, rural school spending, fire-abatement programs, etc. Of course every bill (EVERY) has political roots. And this one has a big root of mandates of the populas in deciding last election that the war in Iraq must either (1) take a new course or (2) simply end altogether. The idea that we are sending negative messages to our enemies is silly. I could care less what our enemies take as messages. When our enemies see us dropping Billions upon Billions of dollars in a hole to fight them, I'm sure they laugh. Just a 10th of the money spent on this war had been spent on Democrat's social programs over the last few Republican years (such as health care, veteran's assistance, the homeless, low-income assistance, etc.) we'd probably still have a Republican majority in Congress. But in this era (or error) of the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, and the middle class sinking - spending on a foreign country hoping for a nice and happy return is ridiculous - and heart-breaking to all those who wish they could have a piece of that pie they've been striving for so long since their paying for it. So the politics of this bill will only begin the process of what the people demanded last November. It may seem silly helping the farmers, rural schools, Katrina victims, and fire prevention in our forests, but these appropriations are OLD NEWS that does not need to go through the process Again this Fall. Get them out of the way and go on with it. The President got all the Cash he asked for. So whats the big deal. He wanted the money for Iraq, He got it. It just so happens the Democrats saw a situation where these "silly" leftover bills could be put out of the way so new business could be examined.
4. It gets worse in the Senate. The Democrats there have included $100 million for the next political conventions. I've asked the RNC to turn away from the blood money, to refuse to ride on the backs of our fighting troops, in my article here:
http://www.Canticle4Leibowitz.com