Jamie Gardner
Pork politics
A few weeks back I shared information on the Hurricane Sandy Relief bill that was recently approved by the House of Representatives that is now headed back to the U.S. Senate. Within this bill was some pure “pork”. It has been estimated that of the House approved $51 billion version of the relief package, approximately one-third of the funding was actually needed for Sandy Relief. So what about the remaining funding? Why don’t we ask our congressmen and women.
With our country seeping down the proverbial economic drain more and more on a daily basis, this was a great test to see how our elected officials would respond. Would they pass a package that would provide for those impacted by the horrific storm, or would they line their coffers with spending that was not needed. They failed the test miserably.
So what exactly did we get from the republican-controlled House? We let’s take a look at some of the nonemergency items (pork):
• $118 million for Amtrak.
• $10 million for FBI salaries and expenses.
• $2 billion for the Federal Highway Administration to spend on roads across the country.
• $16 billion for the Community Development Block Grant Fund that will go not only to Sandy-affected states, but to any major disaster declarations since 2011. This includes just about every state in the country.
What about our Georgia delegation, how did they vote on the bill? Let’s take a look shall we:
• Yea - R - Kingston, Jack - GA 1st
• Yea - D - Bishop, Sanford - GA 2nd
• Yea - R - Westmoreland, Lynn - GA 3rd
• Yea - D - Johnson, Hank - GA 4th
• Nay - R - Price, Tom - GA 6th
• Nay - R - Woodall, Rob - GA 7th
• Yea - R - Scott, Austin - GA 8th
• Nay - R - Collins, Doug - GA 9th
• Nay - R - Broun, Paul - GA 10th
• Yea - R - Gingrey, Phil - GA 11th
• Yea - D - Barrow, John - GA 12th
• Yea - D - Scott, David - GA 13th
• Nay - R - Graves, Tom - GA 14th
There you have it folks. Many of our elected officials talk a good game of cutting spending, but when tested many of them fail miserably. I wonder where congress will find the money to pay for this pork in its annual budget? Silly me. What budget?
So what exactly did we get from the republican-controlled House? We let’s take a look at some of the nonemergency items (pork):
• $118 million for Amtrak.
• $10 million for FBI salaries and expenses.
• $2 billion for the Federal Highway Administration to spend on roads across the country.
• $16 billion for the Community Development Block Grant Fund that will go not only to Sandy-affected states, but to any major disaster declarations since 2011. This includes just about every state in the country.
What about our Georgia delegation, how did they vote on the bill? Let’s take a look shall we:
• Yea - R - Kingston, Jack - GA 1st
• Yea - D - Bishop, Sanford - GA 2nd
• Yea - R - Westmoreland, Lynn - GA 3rd
• Yea - D - Johnson, Hank - GA 4th
• Nay - R - Price, Tom - GA 6th
• Nay - R - Woodall, Rob - GA 7th
• Yea - R - Scott, Austin - GA 8th
• Nay - R - Collins, Doug - GA 9th
• Nay - R - Broun, Paul - GA 10th
• Yea - R - Gingrey, Phil - GA 11th
• Yea - D - Barrow, John - GA 12th
• Yea - D - Scott, David - GA 13th
• Nay - R - Graves, Tom - GA 14th
There you have it folks. Many of our elected officials talk a good game of cutting spending, but when tested many of them fail miserably. I wonder where congress will find the money to pay for this pork in its annual budget? Silly me. What budget?
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#1
cecilia williams
on
02/05/13 at 04:17 AM
[Reply]
It's time to clean house in Dc. TERM LIMITS FOLKS. That will be the only way to get these career politicians out of Washington and back to their home towns so they can see how the working class strives each and every day . Enough of the elite politicians who could careless about middle class Americans.