Sheesh! Even the most soft headed liberals can't fathom the Democrats.
Posted on 10/26/2005 7:54:33 AM PDT by Incorrigible
BY JAMES VARNEY
What hath Katrina wrought? Could the worst natural disaster to strike the United States, a storm that permanently altered the geography of the Gulf Coast, be so powerful it changes the spending habits of the U.S. government?
That's the hope of opinion-mongers on both sides of the blogosphere, and they have been in full-throated uproar. Electronic pundits on the left and the right briefly joined forces last week behind a movement dubbed "Porkbusters" and an amendment in the Senate that would trim alleged fat from government projects and use the money for reconstruction in Louisiana and Mississippi.
You want to funnel millions to Louisiana? OK, how much are you willing to deny North Dakota?
The initial proposals failed in Washington, suggesting that though Katrina may have swamped a major American city and killed more than 1,000 people, it lacked the punch needed to make elected officials give up pet projects. Nevertheless, supporters vowed that the synergy unleashed by the hurricanes that battered the Gulf Coast this year and a bloated federal budget that both liberals and conservatives bemoan for differing reasons could produce a watershed moment in fiscal management.
"I do think it's Katrina fallout," said Glenn Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor who authors Instapundit, one of the Internet's most popular forums for conservative musing and a seedbed of the "Porkbusters" movement.
"After Katrina, when people started talking about it costing $250 billion for repair and reconstruction, it made people think about cutting some of the projects that are everywhere," Reynolds said.
The program launched Sept. 18, complete with a dancing pig logo and requests for readers everywhere to politely pester their congressional delegations.
"Call your senators and representatives and ask them if they're willing to support having that program cut or -- failing that -- what else they're willing to cut in order to fund Katrina relief," Reynolds wrote.
The movement attracted the attention of such disparate lawmakers as Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco liberal and Democratic leader in the House, and Rep. John Shadegg, a conservative Arizona Republican. Pelosi suggested trimming $70 million from transportation projects in the Bay area, and Shadegg proposed cutting $14 million from a Phoenix project.
Things reached an apex of sorts last week, when a packet of amendments from Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., landed on the Senate floor. The first of them would have slashed $1.5 million from programs Coburn deemed dubious: a sculpture park in Washington state, for example, and an animal shelter in Rhode Island.
By the time Senate debate began, what had been a largely conservative movement on the Web had crossed the aisle. Bloggers of all stripes were following the proceedings in real time, rooting for what they labeled fiscal sanity -- and for Katrina relief overall. "Honestly, there's no reason for any Democrat to vote against this amendment," opined The Daily Kos, which, along with the Talking Points Memo, are lefty counterparts to Instapundit.
Before the vote, Sen. Patty [Osama Mama] Murray, D-Wash., delivered a speech in which she warned any senators voting in favor of defunding a Seattle sculpture park to watch their backs about projects in their home states. In the end, the amendment garnered a mere 13 "yeas."
Only one Democrat backed the bill: Wisconsin's Russ Feingold. "It's embarrassing that Feingold was the only Democrat voting for it," The Daily Kos said. "What a great way to show the country that Democrats are the party of fiscal responsibility. Sheez."
The Daily Kos was joined by Mark Tapscott, a conservative media observer at the Heritage Foundation, who wrapped all the day's proceedings in the mantle of Katrina reconstruction: "It appears the majority of senators think it is more important to shelter dogs and cats in Rhode Island than people in Louisiana and Mississippi made homeless by Hurricane Katrina," he wrote.
But that first amendment was just the appetizer. Coburn's main course came next, and it featured a straightforward introduction.
"Purpose," it read, "to redirect certain funds for use for reconstruction of the Twin Spans Bridge connecting New Orleans and Slidell, Louisiana."
Underneath that vanilla preamble, however, was a potentially explosive suggestion amounting to violation of a sacrosanct Senate tradition: A senator was proposing to take hundreds of millions away from a colleague's project in another state.
Coburn's target wasn't exactly new: a proposed bridge in Alaska that critics labeled the "bridge to nowhere" when it first appeared in an omnibus transportation bill. As envisioned, it would be nearly as long as the Golden Gate and higher than the Brooklyn Bridge, and would link Ketchikan, Alaska, with Gravina Island. The island, with a population of 50, according to the census, is currently reached by a ferry.
The debate became so heated that Alaska's Ted Stevens, an 81-year-old Republican who has spent more than a third of his life in the Senate, threatened to resign on the spot if Coburn's amendment passed. It lost by a lopsided 83-15 margin. The vote left The Daily Kos stunned: "A $223 million bridge serving 50 people was more important to these people than rebuilding storm-battered New Orleans. Simply unconscionable."
Despite the setbacks, members of the Porkbusters movement remain optimistic. Hurricane Katrina and its enormous price tags have stirred new debate about fiscal responsibility, they say.
One positive sign, they say, is a proposal that would require massive cuts to offset post-Katrina appropriations. It was introduced by the Republican Study Committee, a conservative caucus that has gained status on the Hill since the GOP leadership was rocked by the indictment of Texas Rep. Tom DeLay and criticism of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.
"It's all part of a grass-roots rumble that's out there," said John Hart, Coburn's spokesman. "Katrina has made people think a lot more in depth about priorities. It's going to take a lot of votes to change the culture in Washington, but we feel like the public is on our side, and bloggers on both sides are rallying around us."
Indeed, about the only place where the public face isn't too bright is over at Instapundit, where Katrina reconstruction and spending priorities began their courtship.
"I'm one of the more cheerful people in the blogosphere because my expectations are low," Reynolds said. "I don't think Katrina is going to give us a `Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' moment, but at least it's given a shot in the arm to Porkbusters and the Republican leadership has reversed itself."
Oct. 25, 2005
(James Varney is a staff writer for The Times-Picayune of New Orleans. He can be contacted at jvarney@timespicayune.com.)
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Sheesh! Even the most soft headed liberals can't fathom the Democrats.
Current foreign aid is about 200 Billion annually.
Stop foreign aid and use that - then the politicans get their state projects and no where in the Consititution does it say the king shall taxes the citizens and send their money to foreign kings.
This situation will likely be a talking point in the next election cycle although it is hard to say how people will go. Too many people vote their Congressional Reps and Senators based on how much bacon is brought home and not so much on the issue of fiscal responsibility and sacrifice. It's one thing to say that you want to help Katrina victims but quite another to take money out of your district.
I wish they had voted that bridge to nowhere out so we could see Ted Stevens resign.
Current foreign aid is about 200 Billion annually.
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Right on. The government has to stop buying favoritism and paying much more attention to its own domestic agenda and needs. The present administration is no different than those past. Obscene amounts of money to foreign governments that should be used to build this country, or better yet, RETURNED TO THE TAXPAYER FROM WHICH IT WAS STOLEN.
What a load of cr@p! The international airport is on Gravina Island. It was the only place with a large flat area that could accomodate the airport. The airport services Ketchikan, Metlakatla, and all of the surrounding communities, probably more than 30K people.
/john
If the bridge would serve 30,000 people instead of 50, the Senator from Alaska should have said so at the podium in defense of the project. Just telling the Senators if they pass this, he will resign, does not educate people, far from it.
Well unless you've read his floor statement, how can you be sure he didn't make that point?
Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, RINO.
I decided to seek more information on this by going to the source and reading the text of the legislation. While doing so I came across this amendment proposed by Senator Stevens:
SA 2181. Mr. STEVENS (for himself, Ms. Murkowski, and Mr. Frist) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill H.R. 3058, making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation, Treasury, and Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, District of Columbia, and independent agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2006, and for other purposes; as follows:
At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. __. No funds provided under Section 1702 of the Safe Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (Public Law 109-59; 119 Stat. 1144) for the construction or reconstruction of any bridge shall be expended until nonemerging funds have been made available for the repair of the Twin Spans Bridge connecting New Orleans and Slidell, Louisiana.
This failed by a vote of 33-61.
Puh-leeze. Counting people who drop in for a once-in-a-lifetime visit as if they were equivalent to actual residents is grossly dishonest.
They should start a petition. I looked for one, but didn't see one.
Total foreign aid has been steady at 15-20 billion dollars a year since the end of the cold war, excluding recent developments rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan. Including those, total foreign aid has increased to just under 40 billion dollars a year.
200 billion dollars is 1.7% of US GDP. The last time foreign aid was that high was the early 1950s when we were rebuilding Europe.
In the last election, we were told normal foreign aid is 1 - 1.2% of GDP. The 200 bill is around the current budget of 2.5 Trillion.
Don't forget monies sent over from other agencies.
If these people want a bridge so badly, let them pay a $150 per vehicle toll for each crossing for the next 25 years.
I'll believe my numbers but the issue does not change. There is nothing constitutional about foreign aid and all of it must stop.
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