Your Tax Dollars Hard At Work

[jasonxctf]

Budget includes funds for shrimp, fertilizer and rock

Wednesday, November 24, 2004 Posted: 11:10 AM EST (1610 GMT)

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Austerity in big-ticket government programs hasn't dulled lawmakers' appetite for special interest spending items that curry favor back home.

 

The spending plan awaiting President Bush's signature is packed with them, doling out $4 million for an Alabama fertilizer development center, $1 million each for a Norwegian American Foundation in Seattle and a "Wild American Shrimp Initiative," and more -- much more.

 

Despite soaring deficits, lawmakers who approved the $388 billion package last weekend set plenty of money aside for home-district projects like these, knowing they sow goodwill among special interests and voters.

 

They also raised the ire of Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, a pork-barrel critic who took to the Senate floor to ask whether shrimp are so unruly and lacking initiative that the government must spend $1 million on them.

 

"Why does the U.S. taxpayer need to fund this 'no shrimp left behind' act?" he asked.

 

Among items in the package: $335,000 to protect North Dakota's sunflowers from blackbirds, $2.3 million for an animal waste management research lab in Bowling Green, Kentucky, $50,000 to control wild hogs in Missouri, and $443,000 to develop salmon-fortified baby food.

 

Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, won dozens of special items for his state -- enough to fill 20 press releases.

 

In one aimed at northern Alabama, Shelby took credit for the $4 million budgeted for the International Fertilizer Development Center.

 

"In addition to the important research conducted at this facility, the facility employs numerous Muscle Shoals-area residents," he noted.

 

Government watchdog Frank Clemente contends such special spending -- often based more on a lawmaker's clout on appropriations committees than on objective factors such as a state's population -- winds up costing even those who win a new road, park or research project.

 

"I think that's the biggest unfortunate thing about these special earmarks -- they eat up billions of dollars," said Clemente, spokesman for Public Citizen. "Meanwhile they're cutting billions of dollars for environmental programs, or education programs or cops on the beat or what have you. That's kind of the unintended effect or the secret effect of these programs."

 

The time-honored practice flourished despite the ballooning national debt, less money for federal programs and rising concern about how government will finance the futures of Medicare and Social Security.

 

When Bush first took office, he vowed to cut pet projects from the federal budget, but the president has yet to veto a single spending bill. He is expected to sign the new plan as well.

 

Within hours of the spending bill's passage, lawmakers were touting the projects they brought home to constituents -- a reminder that in federal budgets what is derided as pork-barrel spending by one constituency can be embraced by another as local assistance.

 

Missouri Republican Sens. Kit Bond and Jim Talent and Republican Rep. Jo Ann Emerson on Monday announced federal money for three-dozen projects in southern Missouri, including $50,000 for wild-hog control.

 

Ohio Reps. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a Democrat, and Steven LaTourette, a Republican, boasted about $350,000 for music education programs at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

 

Nicole Williams, a spokeswoman for Tubbs Jones, said another lawmaker requested the money but Tubbs Jones supported it. With a deficit in Cleveland's public school system and music education among the programs getting cut, the museum aid could benefit the city as a whole, Williams said.

 

Alaska Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Ted Stevens claimed credit for channeling federal money to the state's salmon industry, including money to research use of salmon as a base for baby food.

 

"The goal is to increase the market for salmon by encouraging the production of more 'value-added' salmon products," Murkowski's office said.

 

Michigan's two Democratic senators, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, let it be known they had won $4 million for an environmentally friendly public transportation system in Traverse City.

 

Many of the special items that made the cut were promoted by lobbyists hired by interest groups, companies or communities to convince lawmakers money was needed for their projects.

 

"No, a bike trail in X, Y, Z part of the country doesn't benefit the country as a whole, but the people in that district or community [also] put their money into the pot," said Jim Albertine, a lobbyist who successfully pressed for research and development money for the superconductor industry.

 

The targeted spending was so prolific that McCain had no problem filling a half-hour speech with examples. The shrimp program really stuck in his craw.

 

"I am hoping that the appropriators could explain to me why we need $1 million for this -- are American shrimp unruly and lacking initiative?" he asked.

 

McCain's query went unanswered, in part because spending documents don't identify who proposed each item or why.

[southsider2k5]

You gotta love pork barrel spending :rolly

[EvilMonkey]

I heard on a newsreport on the radio (can't remember which station!) that Bush was trying to get the line-item veto passed again. I believe we had it for a while under Clinton, then the Supremes decided that it was unconstitutional. If they can find a way to get that reinstated, that would (hopefully!) eliminate the tacking of a $50,000 grant for studying cow farts being attached to a $20 billion appropriations bill for Medicaide.

[LowerCaseRepublican]

In the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday, the bill was filled with turkey, pork, potatoes, beans and lots of other stuff.

 

$1,593 to store potatoes in Madison, Wisconsin; $800,000 for "soybean rust" research in Ames, Iowa; $250,000 for asparagus technology and production in Washington state; and $25,000 for a banana factory for an arts program in Bethany, Pennsylvania.

 

Let's add $25,000 to study mariachi music in Nevada; $100,000 on a swimming pool in Ottawa, Kansas; $306,000 to repair an outhouse in Indiana; and even $75,000 to renovate the Merry Go Round Playhouse in Auburn, New York.

 

Missouri Pork Producers Federation has been awarded $1 million to convert hog waste into energy. And $225,000 for the National Wild Turkey Federation in South Carolina.

[Rex Kickass]

The line item veto wouldn't help anything. He probably wouldn't use it for anything other than specific punishment for specific legislators. Rather than that, what would help control spending is ending omnibus spending bills in the first place. If legislators don't read the bills to begin with, what makes you think the President would?

[southsider2k5]

In the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday, the bill was filled with turkey, pork, potatoes, beans and lots of other stuff.

 

$1,593 to store potatoes in Madison, Wisconsin; $800,000 for "soybean rust" research in Ames, Iowa; $250,000 for asparagus technology and production in Washington state; and $25,000 for a banana factory for an arts program in Bethany, Pennsylvania.

 

Let's add $25,000 to study mariachi music in Nevada; $100,000 on a swimming pool in Ottawa, Kansas; $306,000 to repair an outhouse in Indiana; and even $75,000 to renovate the Merry Go Round Playhouse in Auburn, New York.

 

Missouri Pork Producers Federation has been awarded $1 million to convert hog waste into energy. And $225,000 for the National Wild Turkey Federation in South Carolina.

Actually I am going to knitpick a bit, but the Soybean rust could be a huge deal. What it is a a fungus that destroys bean crops. It has destroyed a big percentage of the crops in Brazil, and was just found for the first time in the US within the last month, down in LA. Something like this if it spread here, would be a deathknell to many farmers who are already getting by on tiny margins.

[LowerCaseRepublican]

SS2K4, my big thing with all of that is the $300,000 spent to fix an outhouse.

[Goldmember]

SS2K4, my big thing with all of that is the $300,000 spent to fix an outhouse.

that's one nice crapper...

[Texsox]

But all of these stimulate the economy. They employ Americans who may otherwise be unemployed, they keep some companies from closing. Imagine if we took that much out of the economy, Bush's economic recovery score would be lower. We'll just borrow a few billion more from some foreign bank.

[EvilMonkey]

The line item veto wouldn't help anything. He probably wouldn't use it for anything other than specific punishment for specific legislators. Rather than that, what would help control spending is ending omnibus spending bills in the first place. If legislators don't read the bills to begin with, what makes you think the President would?

Clinton had the benefit of the line item veto until 1998 (i think), and if I recall, there are alot of you on here that think things were pretty good under him. However, maybe a better way would be to make a law saying that you can't attach non-related items to a bill already pending. This way you don't get $300,000 to rebuild a crapper tacked onto a school funding bill, or $2 million for a Foot Fungus Museum in North Dakota added to a defense appropriations bill. Will it stop all? No. Will it stop some? I certainly hope so.

[mreye]

You gotta love pork barrel spending :rolly

Literally:

 

Jo Ann Emerson on Monday announced federal money for three-dozen projects in southern Missouri, including $50,000 for wild-hog control.

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

Clinton had the benefit of the line item veto until 1998 (i think), and if I recall, there are alot of you on here that think things were pretty good under him.  However, maybe a better way would be to make a law saying that you can't attach non-related items to a bill already pending.  This way you don't get $300,000 to rebuild a crapper tacked onto a school funding bill, or $2 million for a Foot Fungus Museum in North Dakota added to a defense appropriations bill.  Will it stop all?  No.  Will it stop some?  I certainly hope so.

Eliminating bill riders would be really, REALLY nice as it would force pork-barrel spending out into the open. Too bad that that'll never happen because thats how every single member of Congress brings home the bacon.

[southsider2k5]

SS2K4, my big thing with all of that is the $300,000 spent to fix an outhouse.

I honestly figured that most people had no idea what it was. If I didn't work in the futures markets I would have had the same WTF reaction.

[Rex Kickass]

We waste all this money and we can't fund Amtrak fully enough to ensure that all its rolling stock is operable or that the track that it owns is maintained. Instead, the Frankenstein railroad that we created 30 or so years ago to ensure a national means of public transportation is dying and underfunded. And doesn't work either.

[southsider2k5]

We waste all this money and we can't fund Amtrak fully enough to ensure that all its rolling stock is operable or that the track that it owns is maintained. Instead, the Frankenstein railroad that we created 30 or so years ago to ensure a national means of public transportation is dying and underfunded. And doesn't work either.

And the sad thing is that if we really wanted to reduce emissions, this should be the kinds of projects we should be trying to push. Even past Amtrak, they should be working on high speed trains to reduce the time travel needed.

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

We waste all this money and we can't fund Amtrak fully enough to ensure that all its rolling stock is operable or that the track that it owns is maintained. Instead, the Frankenstein railroad that we created 30 or so years ago to ensure a national means of public transportation is dying and underfunded. And doesn't work either.

Amtrack doesn't own any track, it piggybacks off of Union Pacific, BNSF and the like.

 

Amtrack might work in a place like the northeast corridor but cross country Id much rather fly.

[Rex Kickass]

Amtrak does own its own track in the Northeast Corridor. That's why it works. You'd much rather fly and so would I, but there aren't a lot of airlines doing very well either at the moment. The high speed rail network, expanded across country could do wonders for reducing emissions by reducing long haul truck traffic across this country. It would also help us reduce our dependence on foreign oil, in a more meaningful way then drilling ANWR.

 

There are all sorts of priorities across this country which we are ignoring:

There are bridges across this country poorly maintained and close to falling down.

The CTA is in desperate need of a cash infusion to make sure the L doesn't fall down. Columbus, LA and a ton of other cities are in desperate need for a public transportation system that works.

We need to upgrade our national power grid system.

We need to implement the recommendations of the 9/11 commission including greater airport and seaport security.

 

Instead, our Congress is spending its time inserting provisions allowing members of Congress to examine personally your tax return. Putting all this pork barrel money in. Allocating funds for the construction of a Presidential yacht. Changing the rules of Congress so that indicted Congressmen aren't forced to leave the leadership.

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

There are all sorts of priorities across this country which we are ignoring:

There are bridges across this country poorly maintained and close to falling down.

The CTA is in desperate need of a cash infusion to make sure the L doesn't fall down. Columbus, LA and a ton of other cities are in desperate need for a public transportation system that works.

We need to upgrade our national power grid system.

We need to implement the recommendations of the 9/11 commission including greater airport and seaport security.

 

Instead, our Congress is spending its time inserting provisions allowing members of Congress to examine personally your tax return. Putting all this pork barrel money in. Allocating funds for the construction of a Presidential yacht. Changing the rules of Congress so that indicted Congressmen aren't forced to leave the leadership.

Transportation infrastructure is maintained by the state DOT's. They are funded from the federal government but the states decide how to spend the money.

 

The CTA........financed mostly by the state of ILL through the gas tax if I'm not mistaken.

 

 

Power grid.......privately owned. Everytime they try to build new power plants their efforts are stalled in court by enviro-whackos who want us to return to riding bicycles to work and lighting candles for light in the house. Along the energy lines there are 2 reasons why fuel costs so much. Refining capacity to make distallates like heating oil, gasoline and the like is not near what it should be thanks to our enviro-whacko friends and their lawsuits and oil prices are driven up and down by speculators.

 

 

I agree that we need to implement intelligence reform and thats gonna happen once they stop arguing with each other Congress and do it. Seaport and Airport security is being beefed up big time but we're playing catch-up big time after years and years of neglect.

 

 

As for pork barrel spending it's nothing new. Stuff like this has been attached to big spending bills since George Washington was signing them and I find it really amusing that the media and the left SUDDENLY care about it and are making a big stink while the right has been complaining about it for years.

[Texsox]

Nuke,

 

Back in the 1960s the environment was much more poilluted than today. We risked major health hazards, which would have been even more expensive to solve. You may believe that we do not need clean air and clean water, but I do. It does a great disservice to call those people envirnomental wackos. If you want to complain about other people flamebaiting, why not stop yourself?

 

The conservatives said we couldn't put air scrubbers on every smokestack, we did.

The conservatives said we couldn't reduce auto emmisions without building $100,000 cars, we did.

The conservatives said we couldn't reduce polluted discharge into our waterways, we did.

The Chicago River actually burned less than a generation ago.

 

Yes there is a cost to a cleaner environment. I live near Mexico and see first hand what not spending the money and enforcing the laws does to the environment. You've been to some pretty crappy places yourself. Do you really want to dismiss the wackos and be more like those places?

[EvilMonkey]

Maybe Nuke's point about the enviro-wackos should be that they complain too much about some things. Plus, they also suffer from the NIMBY, such as the libs in the lovely state of Mass. like Kennedy Jr. I recall there were plans to build a wind farm off the coast so that they woldn't have to expand the existing power plant to meet all the power needs of the area. It would have been clean, cheap and efficient power. But wait! "You can't put that here", said Kennedy. "It would ruin our view!" I guess a good view is more important to them that clean, resource effiecint power. On a more general note, when was the last time a new refinery has been built? Over 20 years, because of all the red tape, not in my backyard, and other restrictions put on them. I agree that I probably wouldn't want one in my backyard either, but sooner or later capacity has to increase, or that will be just one more reason why prices go up.

[Texsox]

Maybe Nuke's point about the enviro-wackos should be that they complain too much about some things.  Plus, they also suffer from the NIMBY, such as the libs in the lovely state of Mass. like Kennedy Jr.  I recall there were plans to build a wind farm off the coast so that they woldn't have to expand the existing power plant to meet all the power needs of the area.  It would have been clean, cheap and efficient power.  But wait!  "You can't put that here", said Kennedy.  "It would ruin our view!"  I guess a good view is more important to them that clean, resource effiecint power. On a more general note, when was the last time a new refinery has been built?  Over 20 years, because of all the red tape, not in my backyard, and other restrictions put on them.  I agree that I probably wouldn't want one in my backyard either, but sooner or later capacity has to increase, or that will be just one more reason why prices go up.

A wind farm isn't the nicest looking thing. Out on West Texas, along Route 10, is one of the worlds largest. Imagine miles and miles of turbines spinning. It is the biggest drawbacks to wind driven power. It is an eyesore. At least out there, only the armadillas and rattlesnakes care.

 

There isn't a perfect method of generating power, the one perfect answer is less consumption. Whether that is more fuel efficient cars, better energy use at home, or more efficient manufacturing methods, it has to be done. Plus, as another thread pointed out, putting gas in your car just supports the middle east and all it's crazies.

 

NIMBY is a universal human condition. Nobody wants a prison, garbage dump, power plant, manufacturing plant, etc. in their backyard. How many lock them up for life conservatives want to own a home next to the maximum security prison?

Edited November 26, 2004 by Texsox

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

A wind farm isn't the nicest looking thing. Out on West Texas, along Route 10, is one of the worlds largest. Imagine miles and miles of turbines spinning. It is the biggest drawbacks to wind driven power. It is an eyesore. At least out there, only the armadillas and rattlesnakes care. 

 

There isn't a perfect method of generating power, the one perfect answer is less consumption. Whether that is more fuel efficient cars, better energy use at home, or more efficient manufacturing methods, it has to be done. Plus, as another thread pointed out, putting gas in your car just supports the middle east and all it's crazies.

 

NIMBY is a universal human condition. Nobody wants a prison, garbage dump, power plant, manufacturing plant, etc. in their backyard. How many lock them up for life conservatives want to own a home next to the maximum security prison?

I totally agree that NIMBY is a big problem when it comes to solving problems.

 

Want more nuclear power plants, the most environmentally safe method of power generation? Ok, where to put the waste.......NIMBY.

 

Lots of people talk about reducing consumption but a lot of them are the same ones that leave the AC on 65 in the summer and have the heat on at 80 in winter.

 

Trust me Tex Id love for us to be able to tell the A-rabs to go to hell & look for some virgins but its not so simple. Right now there's nothing cost effective to replace oil with.

 

Hydrogen? You need power to extract it. How do you make power...oil, coal, nuclear. BTW. The media lumped in money for hydrogen research with the rest of the pork barrel spending talked about in the last week. :rolly

 

Electric Cars? Make one that can go more than 50 miles per all night charge and they'll sell like hotcakes.

 

Looks to me like making hybrid cars is the best first step toward reducing oil dependence, make more of em and make them not look so damn wierd and they'll sell.

 

Then we have to work on weaning ourselves off of our plastic habit...........

[Texsox]

I totally agree that NIMBY is a big problem when it comes to solving problems.

 

Want more nuclear power plants, the most environmentally safe method of power generation?  Ok,  where to put the waste.......NIMBY.

 

Lots of people talk about reducing consumption but a lot of them are the same ones that leave the AC on 65 in the summer and have the heat on at 80 in winter. 

 

Trust me Tex Id love for us to be able to tell the A-rabs to go to hell & look for some virgins but its not so simple.  Right now there's nothing cost effective to replace oil with.

 

Hydrogen?  You need power to extract it.  How do you make power...oil, coal, nuclear.  BTW.  The media lumped in money for hydrogen research with the rest of the pork barrel spending talked about in the last week.  :rolly

 

Electric Cars?  Make one that can go more than 50 miles per all night charge and they'll sell like hotcakes.

 

Looks to me like making hybrid cars is the best first step toward reducing oil dependence, make more of em and make them not look so damn wierd and they'll sell.

 

Then we have to work on weaning ourselves off of our plastic habit...........

And one of the problems with electric cars, from an environmental impact point of view, is it only shifts the point of pollution from the car to the electric plant. There are some marginal benefits in having one place to monitor and keep clean, but still it isn't as non-polluting as some people believe.

[Rex Kickass]

Transportation infrastructure is maintained by the state DOT's.  They are funded from the federal government but the states decide how to spend the money.

 

The CTA........financed mostly by the state of ILL  through the gas tax if I'm not mistaken.

 

 

Power grid.......privately owned.  Everytime they try to build new power plants their efforts are stalled in court by enviro-whackos who want us to return to riding bicycles to work and lighting candles for light in the house.  Along the energy lines there are 2 reasons why fuel costs so much.  Refining capacity to make distallates like heating oil, gasoline and the like is not near what it should be thanks to our enviro-whacko friends and their lawsuits and oil prices are driven up and down by speculators.

 

 

I agree that we need to implement intelligence reform and thats gonna happen once they stop arguing with each other Congress and do it.  Seaport and Airport security is being beefed up big time but we're playing catch-up big time after years and years of neglect.

 

 

As for pork barrel spending it's nothing new.  Stuff like this has been attached to big spending bills since George Washington was signing them and I find it really amusing that the media and the left SUDDENLY care about it and are making a big stink while the right has been complaining about it for years.

The problem with state DOTs is that some states are funded better than others. If we are trying to ensure a national transportation grid, we need to create a national priority system, something that could be easily done through the department of transportation.

 

With the power grid, I'm not talking about bringing more plants online. That wasn't the problem with the power outage a year ago. I'm talking about upgrading the grid itself, the method of distribution. They are privately owned but subject to government oversight. And that's a job we aren't doing effectively.

 

Seaport and Airport security is sorely lacking and there is no active plan to beef it up. Instead, we're talking about privatizing airport security at smaller, regional airports - which would create a situation identical to pre 9/11 airport security. In October, Newark Liberty International announced that they couldn't guarantee the safety of planes flying in or out of the airport, 95% of cargo is not screened, period. Seaport or airport.

 

As for intelligence reform, everyone seems to be for it, yet the GOP leadership won't allow a vote on it.

 

Not all pork barrel spending is pure pork barrel. Not all of it is misguided or bad. But the method that the GOP uses to pass spending bills is a terrible one and has helped discretionary spending increase at a faster rate under the last ten years than when the "left" held the purse strings of this country. The GOP came to control the legislative branch by promising a responsible and accountable government. They have provided neither.