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Merry Christmas! Go Buy Yourself Something Real Nice... |
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Golden Poop Award
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Written by Bob Sordahl
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Sunday, 20 December 2009 |
 'Tis the season of giving, and no one gets into the generosity better than our lawmakers in Washington. By the time you have your morning coffee on Monday, they will have laid the groundwork to spend over $2 trillion of your own dollars on you. As Nancy Pelosi said, just call it a Christmas gift for the American people. All I can say is: "Thanks, but you shouldn't have. No, really, you shouldn't have.
We started the week with the Omnibus 2010 spending bill, followed by the Dept. of Defense budget and jobs bill, and topped it off like a cherry with the Health Care Bill they intend to pass regardless of how unpopular it might be.
According to the Heritage Foundation , the 2010 spending bill contained many brightly wrapped packages for Americans such as: * Provides an 8 percent discretionary spending hike for the third consecutive year;
* Provides these spending hikes in addition to $311 billion in earlier stimulus funding for these discretionary programs; and
* Includes approximately 5,224 earmarks, bringing the FY 2010 total to 8,939, with a pork-laden defense bill expected to push the final total over 10,000.
Assuming passage of the omnibus bill and a separate defense appropriations bill, the three-year-old Democratic congressional majority will have:
* Spent $561 billion more than the baseline level for discretionary programs;
* Pushed up the 2011-20 discretionary spending baseline by $1.7 trillion--nearly $1,500 per household annually; and
* Been responsible for three of the five highest earmark years in American history. Despite a $1.4 trillion budget deficit, this bill includes:
* A 120 percent increase for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program;
* A 30 percent increase for the Corporation for National and Community Service;
* A 22 percent increase for the controversial Essential Air Service; and
* A 9 percent increase for Amtrak.
Even before the omnibus bill was unveiled, the five appropriations bills that passed in October and November included:
* A 67 percent increase for the Environmental Protection Agency's State and Tribal Assistance Grants;
* A 38 percent increase for International Food Aid;
* A 20 percent increase for the Transportation Security Administration;
* An 8.4 percent increase for Lawmakers' Office Allowances;
* An 8.1 percent increase for the National Endowment for the Arts; and
* An 8.1 percent increase for the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Just a quick reminder for those with a short memory:
President Obama promised to reduce earmarks down to the 1994 level of 1,318. He then signed into law most of the 10,160 earmarks for FY 2009 and appears set to sign over 10,000 earmarks into law for FY 2010.
The President also pledged to veto defense earmarks and eliminate all earmarks with "no legitimate public purpose." Yet the President has not threatened to veto the pork-laden defense bill and is not known to have tried to eliminate a single earmark.
House Democrats pledged to reduce earmark spending to 1 percent of all discretionary appropriations (or approximately $11 billion). However, the appropriations bills have already topped $11 billion in earmarks even before the defense bill is expected to add several billion dollars more.
House Democrats also promised to require that all House Members post their earmark requests online. Dozens of lawmakers failed to do so by the deadline. Many who did post their earmarks buried them in obscure parts of their office Web sites.
The crowning jewel of this spending orgy will occur in the dark of night when the Senate passes the health care reform bill in the wee small hours of Monday, December 21st. They are doing so regardless of lack of public support and bipartisan criticism from both ends of the political spectrum. They've got to give something, anything to President Obama to prove that they still can govern. The fact that it will ultimately hurt the American people and that it accomplishes none of the original stated goals has become irrelevant. After spending all this time, and committing all this money, it is better to pass lousy legislation than none at all, and the American people will be the beneficiaries of this holiday spirit of giving. Merry Christmas!
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