Part of a continuing series on how hard it will be stop the spending patterns that contributed to the severity of the flooding in New Orleans. Misspent federal funds, aka Pork, prevented construction projects that might have saved the city. An obvious first step in rebuilding is to stop spending federal money on low priority projects. It won’t be easy. Townhall columnist Herman Cain writes Congressman Don Young’s (R-AK) response to the suggestion by some of his colleagues that he forego an appropriation for his home state to offset a portion of the hurricane recovery cost exposes our monumental weakness in congressional leadership. Congressman Young called giving up his $223 million “bridge to nowhere,” which will connect the City of Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents, a “moronic” idea.
This leadership weakness is found in the shocking number of elected officials who care little if any about the overall good of our nation and could not lead themselves out of a paper bag. In crises like the magnitude of the recent hurricanes, this lack of leadership is accentuated by finger pointing, indecisiveness, bad ideas and doing absolutely nothing. As a result, the citizens are receiving from many in Congress a collective leadership-to-nowhere.
Consider Senator Max Baucus’ (D-MT) response to his own constituency’s offer to help pay for hurricane relief by returning the $4 million he secured for a parking lot in Bozeman. Senator Baucus stated that he “can not and will not support giving away these hard-fought dollars.” That’s code for “I fought for this pork, and I’m going to keep it.”
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Unfortunately, the Republicans are just as leaderless on spending offsets
All those congress-critters (note my use of a gender neutral term) need that pork. Their constituents need it. The very thought of doing without it causes pain. Sounds like withdrawal symptoms to me.
Give Hermain Cain a read.
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