Spending spree: You’d think they had just won the lottery, the way both houses of Congress are spending money they don’t have. And the profligate payouts are conspicuously bipartisan.
According to Congress Daily, Tuesday the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal 2006 emergency supplemental spending bill that is $15 billion more than the White House had requested. The measure next heads to the floor, where senators likely will try to attach billions more to the bloated bill.
The supplemental package, meant to cover wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, hurricane relief and other purposes, has hit $106.5 billion. After Tuesday’s committee action, it was about $10 billion heftier, with additional dollars earmarked for everything from Midwest drought relief to aid for New England lobstermen. The money was ladeled out in such a spirit of bipartisan largesse that none of the bill’s appropriations required a recorded vote.
During the final two hours in committee, money was pumped into the bill at an astounding rate of more than $80 million per minute.
The Spend-ators are not done yet, so when the bill goes to the floor after the Easter recess look for such amendments as $1.2 billion for veterans’ medical care. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., is saying she’ll hold up all of President Bush’s nominees and appointments until he asks Congress for $6 billion more to rebuild levees in New Orleans.
The committee approved the bill 27-1, with the lone protest vote cast by Senate Budget Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H.
Even the White House — no slouch when when it comes to running up tabs — is alarmed by the sight of senators spending money like drunken sailors:
“The continued progress toward passage is good news, but the Senate committee’s funding level is significantly higher than the president’s request and that’s a cause for serious concern,” said Office of Management and Budget spokesman Scott Milburn.
The House of Repre-spendatives passed a more conservative $92 billion spending measure, so whatever final supplemental bill emerges in conference will be somewhere between that figure and the Senate’s $106.5 billion-plus.
But of course much of this frenzied spending is related to the fact that mid-term elections are looming on the horizon. House Republicans are seeking to add $7.2 billion for domestic — read “pork barrel” — programs.
Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., who faces a tough re-election fight, co-sponsored a $4 billion amendment providing crop and livestock assistance for farmers and ranchers hurt by drought, frost and floods across the country.
Other amendments include $2.3 billion to combat avian flu; $1.1 billion in aid for the commercial seafood and recreational fishing industries, including $20 million for New England lobstermen affected by last year’s toxic red tide; $648 million for port security; $600 million for Katrina evacuee housing; $594 million for emergency highway repairs, and a measly $350 million for education.
Looks to me like the whole D.C. scene, ALL THREE BRANCHES, need to be flushed down the toilet along with DeLay and Company!
THEY HAVE ALL GONE STARK, STARING MAD!