The Popeye Strategy For Iraq
... or perhaps a better title for this post could be, "Vegetarian Pork To Fight Radical Islamists". The Democratic leadership in Congress has had to add some farm subsidies to the supplemental for our troops in Iraq in order to convince their caucus to support them. Which crops will get the subsidies? See if you can finish this lyric -- "I'm strong to the finish, 'cause I eats me --":
This just in from Congressman Jon Porter (R-NV):The US Congress is preparing to vote on legislation to provide additional funding for our troops in Iraq. In order to persuade many of their colleagues to vote for the measure, the Democrats have loaded the supplemental with language to provide resources for unrelated projects including aid to salmon fishermen, dairy subsidies and $25 million for spinach producers.
Nice. Setting aside the facts that a) agricultural subsidies suck monkey bums and b) sticking fisheries aid, and dairy and spinach subsidies into a defense bill is really beyond the pale, may I just say how totally, completely, utterly unacceptable it is for Democrats to put Republicans in a position where either they behave like fiscal liberals, or they vote against providing critical funding for our troops?
I suppose it's par for the course for the joke that Cut and Run 3.0 represents, but still, one would hope that a supplemental for the war effort could avoid the pork-barrel treatment. Liz Mair also reports that it also got larded with billions more for agricultural disaster assistance, pandemic flu preparation, and the like.
The problem is more than just pork. Appropriation bills just got written; why weren't these "priorities" addressed in the normal spending process? For one reason, supplementals often get ignored when calculating deficit spending, due to the supposed emergency nature of the requests. Supplementals also usually address high-profile issues in which the White House has a large stake, and so therefore has low credibility for veto threats.
If we want to reform spending and curtail corruption, we should focus on ending supplementals. If we want to fund the troops in Iraq, that should be done through the normal budget process.
Posted by Ed Morrissey on March 15, 2007 4:28 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Comments (1)
Posted by unclesmrgol![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
| March 17, 2007 12:20 AM
conservative democrat,
Then why are you bad mouthing Bush?