Congress passed a $388 billion omnibus appropriations bill a few days ago that no one had time to read. It was over 3,000 pages long and included an outrageous provision that would have allowed members of a Congressional committee to pry into anyone's IRS records. They say that they are going to undo that little invasion of privacy in a special session, but a closer look at the bill shows that it had a lot of other things in it that people should be upset about. It spent money on all sorts of things to make individual members of Congress look good to their constituents back home. According to the New York Times, the bill is "a cornucopia full of money designated for specific highway projects, locks and dams, parks, libraries, airports, museums, zoos, hospitals, schools and universities in every corner of the country." Here is a sample of a few of the goodies that members of Congress snuck into the bill to make the people in their home states and districts happy:
In earmarking money, Congress left little to chance - or to the judgment of
officials in the executive branch of the government. It set forth long lists of
specific projects to be financed with federal money. One list itemizes 1,032
economic and community development projects. Some of the grants are relatively
small: $20,000 for a jail in Winston County, Ala., and $25,000 for a park in
Chambersburg, Pa.
Another part of the bill sets aside $15,000 for
cameras to be installed in police cars in Berryville, Va., and a similar amount
for the Police Department of West Buechel, Ky.
Critics of such local
projects sometimes refer to them as pork barrel spending, or simply pork. The
2005 spending bill includes $1 million for the Missouri Pork Producers
Federation, to see if hog waste can be used as a source of energy.
The
bill also includes $1 million for seafood marketing efforts in Alaska, $269,000
for harvesting seafood in Mississippi, $200,000 for a new seafood plant on the
coast of Oregon, $4 million for "shrimp aquaculture" in seven states and
$443,000 for research to develop "baby food containing salmon," plus $236,000
for blueberry research in Maine and $133,000 for maple research in Vermont.
This process has gone on for years and it needs to be fixed. The problem is that too many members of Congress help themselves at the expense of the tax paying public. They wait until the end of the year and take numerous bills that haven't passed and roll them all up into one piece of legislation that is needed to keep the government running. There is very little accountability in the system. It is too bad that this issue was given almost no attention in the recent elections.
4 comments:
So let me see if I get this correct.. congress is passing laws with a bunch of little amounts of money being thrown in random places around the country... tell me why this is soo bad, except for the fact that it takes 3,000 pages to write it all out, and no one read it... also.. if its a bill doesn't the prez have to sign it??
-Confused about the controversy
Abby
Mmmm...as disgusting as sausage is, boy, it sure is tasty.
I'm more concerned with the provision of the latest omnibus bill which authorizes the recalculation of eligibility for Pell Grants. In effect, millions of students will see their grants decline substantially, while nearly 100,000 will lose their grants completely. The reason for this loss is that in the new system families that make $35,000 to $40,000 a year will lose benefits.
In defense, Republican sponsors of the change say that the change also allows for the government to increase the amount divied to those at the who are the neediest. It remains to be seen whether or not this will actually occur.
well...for one...im really confussed...is congress just taking advantage of its powers? i know that do to the checks and balances that were put in place under the constitution prevent that....but this just makes is sound like that is what was happening. they made it too long for anyone to read it indepth, i just dont understand it...
tawny
I think that it was pretty sneaky for congress to sneak all of the little divisions of money into a 3,000 page bill well knowing that others would not read the entire thing in the short amount of time alloted. I dont think myself either though that I would want to read the entire thing. But I do not think that it is entirely fair that they were able to sneak all of these grants into a bill knowing it would be passed off as no big deal. I also think that it is pretty funny that it is compared to sausages, because no one really likes to know what it is them, they just like to eat them when they are warm and crispy and completely finished ready for their benefit.
Adrienne
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