Pork spending hits an all time low (high?)
The next time you hear a politician tell you there isn't funding for a much needed public program, feel free to slap them in the face.
I've been following the epidemic that is "pork spending," the granting of funds without public review, since Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens earmarked tens of millions to build a bridge connecting mainland Alaska to an uninhabited area starting in 2004.
Unfortunately, as is the case for most Washingtonians, we see our elected officials as being incompetent and corrupt only on a state level, but this article seems to detail that Washington Senators have also perfected the art of wasting taxpayers money to line their own pockets and fund their own interests.
Patty Murray, who liberals in this city (including myself) have long held up as the quintessential "good" politician, was found to have earmarked 208 projects totaling $372 million.
To be fair, not all earmarked funds go to do nothing, but check out some of these examples of what pork spending in our state has produced:
Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., wants $500,000 in federal money to build a welcome center in Ridgefield.
$500,000 for a welcome center in Ridgefield? Who the hell goes to Ridgefield and derides there being no center to officially welcome them?
While programs like Social Security slowly and painfully begin to die, taxpayers are actually having some of the money they pay directly for those programs go to projects like Baird's welcome center.
The idea behind earmarks is that while they do not have to go through the public realm, they still need to be approved by various committees within the House and Senate. And who are the people heading these committees? Some of the worst offenders...like Stevens, who held the head of the Senate Appropriations Committee from 1998-2004.
For Washington state Democrats, this is just another item in a long list of things that all but ensure a strong switch to a Republican majority inside our states borders. Couple this new information with the outrage anyone interested in sports, or the economy for that matter, feels over the Sonics situation, and the party has some problems.
Two Republican Senators have already publicly sworn off earmarks in the coming year.
What was the Democrats response? Rick Larsen, one of the main offenders, stated that we always supplies his constituents with lists of what their hard-earned money is going to. That's like robbing someone and then sending them an itemized list of what you took with the dollar amounts next to them, only letting them know all you did was burn their possessions.
The worst part of this situation is that taxpayers are virtually unable to do anything to stop it. Vote the offenders out of office and it's only a matter of time before another does the same thing.
We can't afford to educate our kids properly...but, hey, at least when we go to Ridgefield, we'll feel a nice warm welcome.
Basketball is like gay, i can't see that work in Oklahoma, what need to be done,
is to find them boyfriends, an upgraded facility would be a good idea.
The sonics were also a great band, I was sorry to see them go into sports, that is the way it is.
Anybody got any of their records? Thought not, ya'all from outta town, so fuck off back east.
At least the Canadians are from here. They're gay on anti-littering initiatives too.
In Buffalo you can spot them by dropping litter, in Seattle you can't because of the spread of arse oriented sexual influences.
A subsidy for sodomy. Vote democrat if you want to wake up with a sore arse.
I'm gay to these days, Alan Rickman, Martin Sheen, oh to be twirled in strong arms.
That's what I think.
Tazia