Budget Waste
WASHINGTON--Look closely in the new federal budget that passed the House on Thursday and you'll find all sorts of goodies for California: An archway for Los Angeles' Chinatown, a sprinkler system for a Redlands cemetery and a battleship for a San Francisco museum are but a few.When it came to doling out money for pet projects in their districts, California's congressional delegation--Republicans and Democrats alike--set aside their partisan differences and passionately embraced the message most memorably parsed by the late House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill (D-Mass.): "All politics is local."
The federally funded largess for California and other states, estimated to total a record $14.6 billion or more this year, was added to the budget even as Congress haggled for months over how to keep spending down. But little consideration was given to cracking down on the time-honored practice of bringing home the bacon. (A 19th century lawmaker once pleaded with his colleagues: "Don't adjourn until I've got my piece of pork.")
California lawmakers, of course, were not alone in packing their local wish lists into the budget, which now goes to the Senate for expected approval. Mississippi lawmakers, for example, secured $375 million for a helicopter aircraft carrier that the Pentagon never requested.
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My Sardonic Thoughts
- Didn't I also just hear recently that the United States Congress has seen fit to hold back payment of United Nations Dues for the last several years (something like 7 years), on the basis that the UN was wasting too much money? And that they were not going to release the money until the UN cut their waste?
- Can we hold back our taxes until the Congress cuts their waste?
