This CNN story discusses the bloat in the most recent senate defense spending bill, approved last night on a 95-0 vote. The worst offender, IMNSHO, was $2.5 Million for the "Canola Oil Fuel Cell initiative". Whether or not this is a valid appropriation for ANY department is subject to debate, but it most assuredly is NOT something for which the DoD should be footing the bill. Perhaps the Dept of Agriculture or the Dept of Energy, but tacking it to a Defense bill is offensive.
This press release from Citizens Against Government Waste highlights a few of the more egregious examples of "defense spending" attached to a supplemental spending bill (to fund the military activities in the Middle East). $98 Million for an agriculture center in Iowa? (I am not familiar with the $50 million bailout of the shipbuilding industry the release discusses, but that *might* be of some importance to the navy.) The whole CAGW site is full of wasteful spending initiatives in all aspects of the federal budget; take a look at what they have to say, and see if your congressional reps are spendthrifts or fiscally prudent. Their "porker of the month" is equally likely to skewer Democrats and Republicans (and sometimes both at once; May 2002 saw a GOP congresswoman from Kentucky and a Democratic congressman from WV share the award for their work in steering VA appropriations to their districts).
posted on July 18, 2003 11:16 AM
