55 Aye's 39 Nay's! The Aye's Have It.

I'm sick of Pork Spending, I've blogged about the stupidity of the congress critters here, here, here, and here. I'm sick of the waste. Fortunately, there is a real leader in the Senate, Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, who has presented a couple of amendments to the way spending is handled. The Coburn Amendment passed, and it passed handily but not the one that you are thinking about.

Tom Coburn (R-Ok) proposed an amendment [here, in PDF format] to remove funding from the Bridge to Nowhere, and use those already approved funds to repair bridging from Slidell, La. to New Orleans. Ted Stevens (Idiotarian R-Ak) naturally had a hissy fit and I'm surprised he didn't claim that it was one of Chuckieboy Schumer's (Idiotarian D-NY) "Dagger to the heart of Alaska" (for more of Schumer's Dagger hyperbole see here here (scroll down to the last entry) and here) Of course, the only dagger applied is the dagger to stupid spending.

Yet, in spite of the obvious benefit of not spending $223,000,000.00 for a bridge from Ketchikan, Ak to a little island only a 7 minute ferry rid away and that the island only has 50 or so residents. Salon notes:

A mess of thorny devil's club and salmonberries, along with an old chicken coop, surrounds the 40-year-old cabin where Mike Sallee grew up and still lives part time on southeast Alaska's Gravina Island. Sallee's cabin is the very definition of remote. Deer routinely visit his front porch, and black bears and wolves live in the woods out back. The 20-mile-long island, home to fewer than 50 people, has no stores, no restaurants and no paved roads. An airport on the island hosts fewer than 10 commercial flights a day."

This little-bitty island with it's little bitty population needs a quarter billion dollar bridge? To Ketchikan? Folks, I've been to Ketchikan, it is a beautiful little town of 8,000 people. Yes, that's right, 8,000 people. And Ted Stevens said, if his little pet didn't stay fully funded he would be carried from the Senate on a stretcher.

Patty Murry (Idiotarian D-Wa) on the other hand, didn't threaten to resign, get carried out on a stretcher or anything else, she only said that the various committee's would "look carefully" at any yo-yo willing to vote for the "Coburn Amendment." Threats like that didn't sit well with Senator Coburn of Course, you can see his thoughts here. Well, ole Stevens is safe and Patty Murry keeps her sculpture garden, the "Coburn Amendment" was defeated 82-15.

But 'ole Tom, why, he ain't a-skeered of them wiley folk from fancy places like Washington, Texas, Alaska, he's an Okie, an Okie's er-tuff!

Coburn, wasting no time and knowning that transparancy must be built into the practice of earmarking put forth another amendment. This one aimed at the heart of this pork practice. From Government Bytes:

The Coburn amendment requires that any limitation, directive, or earmarking be included in the bill’s conference report. Previous Senate procedures allowed the Senate to automatically approve earmarks or special projects included in the House version of an appropriations bill. Consequently, many earmarks that became law did not even come up for a vote in the Senate. This process was used to essentially hide millions of dollars of pork spending from public view.�

The final vote? 55 to 39 and the amendment carried. Here is a list of the 39 that voted IN FAVOR OF CONTINUING TO HIDE PORK FROM PUBLIC SCRUTINY:

Allard (R-CO), Baucus (D-MT), Bennett (R-UT), Bond (R-MO), Bunning (R-KY), Byrd (D-WV), Carper (D-DE), Chambliss (R-GA), Cochran (R-MS), Coleman (R-MN), Conrad (D-ND), DeWine (R-OH), Dole (R-NC), Dorgan (D-ND), Durbin (D-IL), Frist (R-TN), Grassley (R-IA), Gregg (R-NH), Hagel (R-NE), Harkin (D-IA), Hatch (R-UT), Hutchison (R-TX), Jeffords (I-VT), Johnson (D-SD), Kennedy (D-MA), Lautenberg (D-NJ), Leahy (D-VT), Lincoln (D-AR), Lott (R-MS), Murray (D-WA), Pryor (D-AR), Reed (D-RI), Reid (D-NV), Sarbanes (D-MD), Shelby (R-AL), Smith (R-OR), Stevens (R-AK), Thune (R-SD), Vitter (R-LA)."

The really SHAMEFUL aspect to this vote is that almost half (19 to be exact) were Republicans. I can only assume that now that Republicans hold the reins of power they like the pork spending.

As I said in a previous post:

When will Members of Congress quit worrying about bringing home the bacon, and really vote what is best for America and then stand up to their constituents and say "I voted in America's Best Interests." Are you brave enough to do that, or is your elected job more important than what is right for America?"

UPDATE: And for those that really don't think Pork is a problem, read this

Posted by GM Roper at October 22, 2005 10:00 PM | TrackBack