Congress - vs - President Bush...Battle Over Porky Bill
Posted Aug 26 2008 4:38pm
LA Times.com published an article today, stating that Bush vetoed a $606-billion education and health appropriations bill.
Were his reasons justifiable?
nearly $10 billion over the President's request
filled with 2,000 earmarks
In essence, it is a bill filled with a bunch of "pork", or a lot of spending for stuff that has nothing to do with what the bill is really about .
Bush did sign , however, the $471 billion Pentagon appropriations bill , which also included some unnecessary items of spending . The difference is in the amount of "porkfat" included in the bill and that the military needs the funds during this time of war.
Is this a usual thing for Congress to try to put through bills with "pork" ?
Yes . This is nothing new.
Sometimes the irritants about this matter come when there is a very great and necessary bill being pushed through Congress , and because of the special interest groups getting involved in getting their "pork" put into the bill, the good bills get vetoed .
Additionally, higher spending becomes necessary in order to push through an important bill because of the unnecessary "pork".
This is when I'd like to replace the letter "p" in pork with a "c" and give it to the special interest groups.
Were his reasons justifiable?
In essence, it is a bill filled with a bunch of "pork", or a lot of spending for stuff that has nothing to do with what the bill is really about .
Bush did sign , however, the $471 billion Pentagon appropriations bill , which also included some unnecessary items of spending . The difference is in the amount of "pork fat" included in the bill and that the military needs the funds during this time of war.
Is this a usual thing for Congress to try to put through bills with "pork" ?
Yes . This is nothing new.
Sometimes the irritants about this matter come when there is a very great and necessary bill being pushed through Congress , and because of the special interest groups getting involved in getting their "pork" put into the bill, the good bills get vetoed .
Additionally, higher spending becomes necessary in order to push through an important bill because of the unnecessary "pork".
This is when I'd like to replace the letter "p" in pork with a "c" and give it to the special interest groups.
The political system at its finest!