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The 7 - Current Events & Politics - Forget the hard cuts Register and log in to post!
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brick
Bockwurst
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#1 Posted on 24.11.04 1113.40
Reposted on: 24.11.11 1113.49
With all the retoric that we were just subjected to in the last election about bringing the deficit under control and making the hard choices shouldn't more attention be paid to these pork barrel issues:

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20041123%2F1601625367.htm&sc=1153&photoid=20041123WX101


    The targeted spending was so prolific that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., had no problem filling a half-hour floor speech with examples before the Senate vote on the measure, such as a plan for $1 million for the Wild American Shrimp Initiative.

    ``I am hoping that the appropriators could explain to me why we need $1 million for this - are American shrimp unruly and lacking initiative? Why does the U.S. taxpayer need to fund this `no shrimp left behind' act?'' McCain asked his colleagues.


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Pool-Boy
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#2 Posted on 24.11.04 1157.49
Reposted on: 24.11.11 1158.57
He's right, totally. What bugs me even MORE is that you never hear a brouhaha about lacking funds for these programs, but you ALWAYS here that Social Security is in danger, or other high priority spending issues. Why aren't these things being paid for FIRST? And all of this garbage paid for if we have the cash left over?

It's like when you hear your local reps threatening that there will not be enough money for Police and Fire, but there is never a question about after school programs or the city-wide "Hug-Your-Mom" Picnic.

The government has no sense of priority in its spending...
wordlife
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#3 Posted on 24.11.04 1225.42
Reposted on: 24.11.11 1226.02
Just another reason why McCain is my favorite politician right now.

$4 million to some small city in MI b/c they have a 100k swelling in population? Man I wonder what Cape Cod or Nantucket could get?
Grimis
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#4 Posted on 24.11.04 1330.20
Reposted on: 24.11.11 1330.49
I was always a fan of the old proposal to require a constitutional citation for spending programs, which as a law makes too sense to pass because both aprties pet spending programs would be on the chopping block.
Dahak
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#5 Posted on 24.11.04 2055.50
Reposted on: 24.11.11 2055.56
Why does the Federal govt give money to individual states anyway? I mean how many times do we have to hear Federal Matching Funds as some religous mantra from state and local govts?
I mean huge projects like dams and the highway system fine that is a Federal problem. But giving local cities money to make an aquarium or museum to increase tourism does little to help out the Federal govt.
Cut the amount the Fed gets by 15% and give it to the state and local govt. Of course then Congressmembers would have a harder time pointing to pork barrel projects for votes. 20,000 or so govt. employees would get shitcanned who do nothing more than talk to other govt employees about whether Iowa is meeting all 175 criteria for corn growth for their Federal matching funds.
Mr. Boffo
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#6 Posted on 24.11.04 2245.17
Reposted on: 24.11.11 2247.30
God damn, if John McCain runs for Pres in '08, I'll support in any way I can. And I've never voted for a Republican in my life. Every time I hear about politicians doing something stupid, John McCain is on my side. I (image removed) John McCain.
jivesoulbro
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#7 Posted on 27.11.04 1856.00
Reposted on: 27.11.11 1856.02
This Congress is complete bullshit. I know that Hastert is more well-liked than Gingrich (who isn't?), but things have not gotten any better on his watch. It just seems the accomplishments of the GOP congress have been very few. They don't read their spending bills, they make the old Democratic Congress look fiscally conservative, and they spend most of their time either out fundraising or dealing with wedge issues like "defining marriage" and inventing terms like "partial-birth abortion" to describe legislation that the Supreme Court has shot down repeatedly. We thought we were getting a new kind of Congress in 1994 and we all got taken for a ride. And this ride blows.

The problem is that it's so hard to get political traction on this in a congressional campaign. If you're a challenger and you rail against a spending bill that's full of pork, then you're probably railing against a hike-and-bike trail or a library or a firehouse in your district that is very popular. So now you're against hiking, biking, libraries or firefighting.
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