Heckufa job!
Thank goodness that some of those pork barrel programs were Xed out of the stimulus package.
Like preparing for a flu pandemic.
though I think they kept in the volcano research.
Labels: death doom and destruction, twits
posted by Clemens @ 12:30 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I don't follow the logic. We should have placed every possible line item in the stimulus bill? Then no one would have debated the budget, since it was rammed through a Congress on the basis of three Republican votes?
So instead, Congress could have made a larger appropriation for swine flu, as requested by Collins before the stimulus bill was introduced by political hacks—er, the House leadership?
Collins's office is pushing back against the charge that she somehow put the nation at risk by opposing the inclusion of pandemic money in the stimulus. The record does show that the Maine senator is a longtime proponent of increased funding for flu preparedness, and in December, her office points out, Collins wrote to Senate leaders asking for a $905 million increase for the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund at the Department of Health and Human Services.Even during the stimulus debate, Collins said repeatedly that she backed the idea of boosting the preparedness budget, but just didn't think it made sense to include the money in the stimulus measure because it was a stretch to consider it stimulative (though some analysts have pointed out that a widespread outbreak right now would make a bad economy even worse). Instead, Collins wanted the money added in the regular appropriations process, and the omnibus spending bill that was approved in March did include a small increase in funding for pandemic flu research.
To be fair, Collins wasn't the only senator who criticized the pandemic funding back in February. At the time, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) referred to the flu money as "one of the little porky things" that the House had put in the stimulus measure but the Senate had taken out. —From a newspaper article that did some actual research, as opposed to a weblog trying to score political points.
But hey, better that $870 million that was proposed in the stimulus, than the $905 amount that was requested (earlier) by Collins, and not enacted by a dawdling Congress, right?
and hey, better that we keep in all those porky little things and score political points against our opponents than we have a functioning government that actually debates things and spends within its means—wouldn't you say?
The logic is this: we may have wanted, and in fact needed, to get rid of all that stuff. I just resent being told by some pandering self serving twit that it is not important, not worth doing, etc.
Anything to avoid calling for a principled discussion of what government should be doing, and to avoid admitting that we might actually be making sacrifices. Necessary sacrifices, or necessary limits, depending on one's POV.
Taking cheap shots at a stimulus package by cherry picking things the pol can make sound ridiculous is not something I want to avoid ridiculing. And I will cheerfully sign on to pointing out that twits like Schumer did the same thing.
I think that your last point is exactly why I resent and dislike that level of 'debate.' It doesn't debate anything - it just does the equivalent of name-calling.
BTW, have I told you that I am disenchanted by our entire political class recently?
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