Rats in Congress Use Troops as ‘Bargaining Chip’ for Pork

Dems Accused of Using Troops as ‘Bargaining Chip’ for Pork
(CNSNews.com)
As the House prepares to debate legislation Thursday that would authorize more funding for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan – and set a September 2008 end-date for funding – conservative analysts condemned what they said was excessive “pork spending” in the bill.
The U.S. Troop Readiness, Veteran’s Health, and Iraq Accountability Act would allocate $103 billion in additional funding for military operations, and to care for wounded troops. But it also contains $21 billion in so-called “pork spending.”
Several appropriations are under fire, including:
— $50 million for “asbestos abatement and other improvements” in the U.S. Capitol.
— $74 million for “storage, handling, and other associated costs for the 2007 crop of peanuts.”
— $120 million to fund the shrimp industry’s recovery from Hurricane Katrina
— $284 million for payments to dairy farmers
— $4.3 billion in increased Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief for areas affected by hurricanes
The bill allocates smaller amounts, such as $5.27 million for bird flu research and $165,200 for the widow of a late congressman.

Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) said in a statement Wednesday that Democrats are “trying to pressure reluctant members into voting for this by taking on billions of dollars in pork barrel projects. The money they want to spend on spinach subsidies and peanut storage would be better spent on body armor and Humvees.”

Congress is “effectively using the troops as a bargaining chip for their own pork” and called the domestic projects “extremely wasteful.”

“Congress is telling the president, you cannot fund body armor for our troops until you agree to give us $16 million for extra office space in the House of Representatives,” Riedl said. The $16 million allocation for “House office buildings” appeared in an earlier version of the bill but has since been removed.

Republicans on the committee believe the bill named for troops and the war on Iraq should stick to that focus and not deviate to domestic spending projects.

“This legislation ought to focus on our troops. It ought to focus on providing those in harm’s way with the resources they need to complete their mission successfully,” California Rep. Jerry Lewis, the ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee, said in a statement.

For its part, the White House has said President Bush will veto the appropriations bill unless it is changed. “Because of the excessive and extraneous non-emergency spending it contains,” the administration said in a statement, “if this legislation were presented to the President, he would veto the bill.”

“Congress should reject this legislation,” the White House statement continued, “and promptly send the President a responsible bill that provides the funding and flexibility our troops need, without holding funding for the troops hostage to unrelated spending.”

Wild Thing’s comment…….
There should be a name attached to every add on spending piece. Where’s the congressman or senator responsible? The Democrats would like to cut national defense – not to reduce spending, but so they can weaken our military and also so they can piss it away on more of their domestic giveaway programs instead