Text 5281, 93 rader
Skriven 2004-11-24 15:12:26 av Alan Hess
Ärende: the pork continues
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-op.thomas24nov24,0,5717886.story?
coll=bal-pe-opinion
Stop Congress from squandering our tax dollars


By Cal Thomas

November 24, 2004

ARLINGTON, Va. - The just concluded "lame-duck" session of Congress should have
been labeled the "goose that laid the golden egg" session for the federal
goodies it dispensed.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, told me he is pleased that
Congress has reduced the "rate of the increase in spending." Is this why we
have a Republican congressional majority, so that they can increase spending
less than Democrats?

While it is true that the massive $388 billion spending bill reduces spending
increases for some things, such as education and the environment, there is
still too much pork for healthy fiscal living. The bill will be fine-tuned
further early next month before going to the president for his signature, but
no one expects any of the wasteful spending to be curtailed.

Rep. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, compared the lame-duck session to the
movie Groundhog Day, in which the events of one day are repeated the next day
and for days after that. "Every year, it's the same thing," he said. "Congress
passes spending bills loaded with pork projects. In fact, this year ...
Congress spent $100,000 for the Punxsutawney Weather Museum in Pennsylvania."

Other "golden eggs" laid by the congressional geese include $450,000 for the
Baseball Hall of Fame, $200,000 for the Dennison Railroad Depot Museum in Ohio,
$350,000 for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, $250,000 for the Country Music
Hall of Fame, $100,000 for the Municipal Swimming Pool in Ottawa, Kan., $35,000
for the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, $300,000 to build the Great Falls parking
garage in Auburn, Maine, and $1.5 million for departing Rep. Richard A.
Gephardt's archive at the Missouri Historical Society.

There is no mandate in the Constitution, or anywhere else, for unnecessary and
wasteful spending at any time, much less in a time of record deficits and debt.

President Bush has promised to spend some of the political capital he believes
he's earned following the election. He should work to save some of the real
capital forked over to government by taxpayers. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan
Greenspan caused the stock market to take a dive last week when he warned that
foreign investors might be reluctant to continue financing American debt and
the widening trade gap.

Citizens Against Government Waste (www.cagw.org) has compiled a list of nearly
$23 billion in pork projects it found in appropriations bills for fiscal 2004.
CAGW has also recommended 592 ways to reduce spending it estimates could save
taxpayers $217 billion in fiscal 2005 and $1.65 trillion over the next five
years.

Among the recommendations are limiting the terms of committee chairs, passing a
Taxpayer Bill of Rights, enforcing procedural rules and passing a line-item
veto.

CAGW believes the tax cuts should be made permanent and the Internal Revenue
Service and indecipherable tax code scrapped and replaced with a national sales
or flat tax, thus closing large numbers of loopholes and ridding the system of
unfairness.

Reforms in Social Security and health care, along with tort reform, would also
reduce the cost and size of the federal government.

The Bush administration should make reform a hallmark of its second term,
saving taxpayers billions. It might resurrect former Sen. William Proxmire's
"Golden Fleece Award," embarrassing lawmakers who waste our money.

One place to start might be the Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. Sikorsky is bidding for
a $1.6 billion Pentagon contract to replace the president's aging helicopter
fleet. Sikorsky is the company that promised, but failed to deliver, a previous
fleet of helicopters known as the Comanche.

After taking 21 years and spending $8 billion on an aircraft that never took
off - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld finally axed it in February -
Sikorsky wants to make another run. It makes you pine for the days of $600
toilet seats and $171 hammers of former Pentagon budgets.

If it was their own money they were spending, not ours, perhaps Congress would
be more frugal. The president should use his veto and shame the Republican
Congress into spending less and guarding the taxpayer's purse.

As the president said during the 2000 campaign, it isn't the government's
money, it's your money.

Cal Thomas' syndicated column appears Wednesdays in The Sun.

Copyright + 2004, The Baltimore Sun

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