And we wonder what's wrong with the nation
Oct. 2nd, 2008 07:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krislaughsI don't usually get overly political on here, but I really felt the need to vent my outrage on this one. Remember that $700,000,000,000 dollar bailout planned to add liquidity to Wall St? Yeah, that one that now looks as though it's going to pass?
I'm not saying the country doesn't need the bill-- it needs the bill as much as it needs a functional banking sector (and I'll let you decide how much that is)-- what disgusts me tonight, it what ELSE they've tacked onto the legislation in order to get it passed.
Our legislators are Pigs in a Pork spending heaven. Tax breaks are going to groups like auto racing tracks and Virgin Islands Rum, which, while I'm not knocking car racing or rum, is hardly central to our economic well-being as a nation.
"The Congressional Budget Office said the package of breaks - including obvious pork and some more defensible tax-relief measures - will add about $112 billion to budget deficits over the next five years because the bill doesn't contain enough offsetting revenue hikes to keep the budget balanced."
ONE HUNDRED TWELVE BILLION on a 700 billion dollar bill. That's a 16% increase to its cost. Particularly of note is how those noble Alaskan Republicans like Sarah Palin are really fighting to end this kind of spending.
Another measure inserted into the bill appears to be a bald-faced bid aimed at winning the support of Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who voted against the original version when it went down in flames in the House on Monday.
That provision - a $223 million package of tax benefits for fishermen and others whose livelihoods suffered as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill - has been the subject of fervent lobbying by Alaska's congressional delegation.
And for a blogger who takes to task another guy who's promised to end this kind of spending, this guy says it better than I can.
Today John McCain was on Morning Joe, touting his usual line about how it’s a disgrace this bill was full of wasteful pork. And how a president has to take a stand no matter how important the bill is and veto it.
And yet he voted for it. Mr McCain apparently thinks he can have his cake (ranting against pork-barrel spending) and vote it, too.
I'm not saying the country doesn't need the bill-- it needs the bill as much as it needs a functional banking sector (and I'll let you decide how much that is)-- what disgusts me tonight, it what ELSE they've tacked onto the legislation in order to get it passed.
Our legislators are Pigs in a Pork spending heaven. Tax breaks are going to groups like auto racing tracks and Virgin Islands Rum, which, while I'm not knocking car racing or rum, is hardly central to our economic well-being as a nation.
"The Congressional Budget Office said the package of breaks - including obvious pork and some more defensible tax-relief measures - will add about $112 billion to budget deficits over the next five years because the bill doesn't contain enough offsetting revenue hikes to keep the budget balanced."
ONE HUNDRED TWELVE BILLION on a 700 billion dollar bill. That's a 16% increase to its cost. Particularly of note is how those noble Alaskan Republicans like Sarah Palin are really fighting to end this kind of spending.
Another measure inserted into the bill appears to be a bald-faced bid aimed at winning the support of Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who voted against the original version when it went down in flames in the House on Monday.
That provision - a $223 million package of tax benefits for fishermen and others whose livelihoods suffered as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill - has been the subject of fervent lobbying by Alaska's congressional delegation.
And for a blogger who takes to task another guy who's promised to end this kind of spending, this guy says it better than I can.
Today John McCain was on Morning Joe, touting his usual line about how it’s a disgrace this bill was full of wasteful pork. And how a president has to take a stand no matter how important the bill is and veto it.
And yet he voted for it. Mr McCain apparently thinks he can have his cake (ranting against pork-barrel spending) and vote it, too.
