Democrats Hide Pet Projects From Voters

[Aviator]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070603/D8PHA8LG0.html

By ANDREW TAYLOR

WASHINGTON (AP) - After promising unprecedented openness regarding Congress' pork barrel practices, House Democrats are moving in the opposite direction as they draw up spending bills for the upcoming budget year.

Democrats are sidestepping rules approved their first day in power in January to clearly identify "earmarks" - lawmakers' requests for specific projects and contracts for their states.

Rather than including specific pet projects, grants and contracts in legislation as it is being written, Democrats are following an order by the House Appropriations Committee chairman to keep the bills free of such earmarks until it is too late for critics to effectively challenge them.

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., says those requests for dams, community grants and research contracts for favored universities or hospitals will be added to spending measures in the fall. That is when House and Senate negotiators assemble final bills.

Such requests total billions of dollars.

As a result, most lawmakers will not get a chance to oppose specific projects as wasteful or questionable when the spending bills for various agencies get their first votes in the full House in June.

The House-Senate compromise bills due for final action in September cannot be amended and are subject to only one hour of debate, precluding challenges to individual projects.

Obey insists he is reluctantly taking the step because Appropriations Committee members and staff have not had enough time to fully review the 36,000 earmark requests that have flooded the committee.

What Obey is doing runs counter to new rules that Democrats promised would make such spending decisions more open.

 

[Aviator]

And before all you "The Rupublicans are doing it too!" people show up, I would say that the Republicans were not the ones who promised a more open and honest Congress when they were running.


Aviator

 

[LDB]

It's time for Unintended Consequences to shift from prophesy to reality with maybe 300 reality checks in the house and about 5 dozen in the senate. It's going to take something as drastic as that to get them back in line. They have become a cesspool of worthlessness.

Leo Bricker, 73's K5LDB, OOIDA Life Member 677319
Owner, Panther trucks 5508, 5509, 5641
Highway Watch Participant, Truckerbuddy
EO Forum Moderator
----------
Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like.

 

[Jayman]

But, there is good news. Thompson will run in 08.

 

[Pilgrim]

This is the party that wants to put Hillary Clinton in the White House. One can only imagine what they can do with her and Slick Willie collaborating with them, but based on past quotes from Hillary it would be a good guess that they will confiscate corporate profits and individual incomes they deem excessive to pay for these pet projects.

 

[Robsdad]

Just a thought:
We have a war in Irag that is to protect the oil in country. We are spending billions monthly. I believe both Bush presidents have tried this. And most likely both will have failed. If we had someone in the white house with only a thimble of common sense we would not have to look for money to repair our own infrastructure. War on Terror. Sorry don't think so. War to boost economy, probably. You will never get towel heads to get along. One week after we pull out, they will kill one another again. It's just thier way. Protect our own borders and let them do as they please.
Ah! Well! This should bring a respsonse.

 

[Aviator]

>Just a thought:

> Protect our own borders and let them do as they please.
>Ah! Well! This should bring a respsonse.

Ahhhh, we did, then Sept 11th happened.


Aviator

 

[Robsdad]

Sorry Aviator:
We don't even protect them today. Just go into Canada and come out. You will see countless trucks driven by towel heads that do not even get a second look. I am an american citizen born and raised. I had to show everything I had while at least 20 of these trucks driven by these guys just went right on through. We only inspect 4% of the trucks at the Mexican border. Sorry don't buy into the Bush way of doing things. Bring on Thompson anyone with some common sense but this good ol boy needs to go back to Texas.

 

[Aviator]

Majority of "Towel Heads" are Indian, not Arab. Big difference. Indians are Hindu.

And when was the last terrorist attack in the US? Sept 11th? Seems like we are doing something right. Not that things are perfect, but we seem to be doing ok so far.

Anyway, out of curiosity, whats that got to do with my original post?

Aviator

 

[greg334]

I wrote this before I saw Aviator's post but going to post it anyway.

Robsdad,

Sorry but I think the term “towel heads†is well misplaced. The Canadians who you are referring to seem to be mostly from India not the ‘Middle East’ and many of them are educated better than many of the American truckers and for that matter many American kids as sad as that sounds. I am of the opinion that the people who never worked with them or even care to try to understand them seem to easily lump them all together.

The difference between the two countries, Canada and Mexico is too great to even consider that the Canadian trucks are a detriment to the US or your bottom line. Canada has at least taken a part in harmonizing the laws between the US and Canada to ensure that the driver from Toronto drives pretty much the same as a driver from Texas. Mexico on the other hand doesn’t really care to do anything to ensure that the drivers are properly trained or even care about safety. The grant that was given to them when NAFTA was signed never was used for the needed changes to ensure that the drivers are even licensed properly. One of the issues that many should be concerned about is the extradition of criminals from Mexico when something happens. But I won’t go into that.

As for the war and what it really means, I won’t get into why we are there but I can say that the reason many seem to complain about it is simple – many just don’t get the connection about the entire Middle East problem or even want to understand it and what it means to us and our future as a country. Many think that this is about oil, while others think it is about revenge, while others think it is about the lies and deceit that brought us to the point of fighting an un-winnable war – all wrong. The sad but very true fact is we are ignorant of the rest of the world and about history, we have forgotten 9/11 and other terrorist acts and we have become again complacent in our little self made worlds and worry about us, in some case it is about a single person. Our worries as of today are not the politics of our government, not the terrorist who want to kill you or I or the troops who are actually doing a lot of hard and impossible work protecting us, but rather we are concern with Paris and her three hard days in prison, the American Idol cow (who I think is also ugly) or New Orleans. We don’t care about real issues and pass things off too easily because they seem too complicated because many of us today are not educated enough to think for ourselves. With the more recent issues of the military judges dismissing charges against terrorist, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill which will allow Gitmo detainees to challenge their imprisonment in US federal courts (which also means they are equal to every US citizen and further cheapening our citizenships and country) and the media who go hand in hand with the far left’s attempt to undermine the work our troops are doing so to destroy the president, all of which is pretty much ignored by the people.

If we really want to change anything, it starts with involvement in our system which in turn starts with educating yourself and your children.

 

[Robsdad]

Greg:
I respect your opinion. But, we have always wanted to be and have been the caretaker of the world. The world has changed and with the technology of the air waves we see even the most minute issue blown out of proportion over and over. I guess I am old school. I believe you take care of your own. If the neighbor has weeds in his corn you can advise him on what you did to remove them from yours, if he chooses to let the weeds grow. That is his problem. 9/11 was something that had never happened in this country. Spending money on technology and protecting our own borders and air passage will avoid problems like this in the future. Not spending money and lives in Irag and Afganistan. Take care of your own business and let everyone else take care of thiers. We should no longer be the world's caretaker. Just my opinion. Like I said I am old school.
Have a good one.

 

[bryan]

Hi

Yep the Dems are going to spend money on this country.As for pet projects what about Haliburton supplying our troops,the no bid contracts during Katrina,and the no bid contracts for national security.

We are trillions of dollars in debt and have nothing to show for it.Unless of course you make more than $250,000 per year or own a family farm that is worth more than $2 million. (you got a tax cut)

It the Dems cut out the over paid war contractors,the corporate handouts and go back to taxing the rich (not just the middle class and the working poor)they should be able to cut the national debt back to a reasonable level.

 

[Pilgrim]

>Hi
>
>Yep the Dems are going to spend money on this country.As for
>pet projects what about Haliburton supplying our troops,the
>no bid contracts during Katrina,and the no bid contracts for
>national security.
>
>We are trillions of dollars in debt and have nothing to show
>for it.Unless of course you make more than $250,000 per year
>or own a family farm that is worth more than $2 million.
>(you got a tax cut)
>
>It the Dems cut out the over paid war contractors,the
>corporate handouts and go back to taxing the rich (not just
>the middle class and the working poor)they should be able to
>cut the national debt back to a reasonable level.
>
>
Some questions regarding the assertions of this post:

1) What does Haliburton do - what services do they provide and who are their competitors that can provide these services better and cheaper?

2) What no-bid contracts for national security are you referring to?

3) What percentage of income tax revenue is paid by the middle class?

4) What percentage of income tax revenue is paid by the "rich"? For purposes of discussion let's define rich as adjusted gross income over $100,000.

 

[Black Sheep]

Here's a partial answer about Federal income taxes collected for 2005:

The Top 1% of wage earners accounted for 31.6% of tax collections.

The Top 5% accounted for 52.6%

The Top 10% accounted for 65.3%

The Top 20% accounted for 80.6%

This means the Bottom 80% accounted for 19.4% of tax collections.

Don't tell me the income tax burden of this country is falling on the middle class. This is not to say there isn't excessive taxation and spending on the government's part, and there are plenty of other not-so-obvious taxes we all are stuck with. However, if the "rich" happen to get a 1 or 2% break it doesn't effect me in the least. Congress should just make do with less money.

For the number-crunchers that might be interested, you can check out the entire report on the Congressional Budget Office website at www.cbo.gov

 

[greg334]

Brenda,
I understand what you are saying but you have fallen into the trap that many want all of us to fall into and it is a trap about class warfare. I think that you need to understand that thinking this way holds you and I back from true success.

I mean that today we as a society want to punish the people who are successful, ‘how dare they make a million dollars while I am making only twenty thousand’, and more and more we must put into the idea that people who need help must always receive it from the government. This actually put more power into the hands of the people we elect and eliminate the common sense of these issues by forcing them to become an emotional issue which is used to keep these people into power, a very horrible circle. The point that is important to remember is dem or rep don’t matter, money is power and the power that these people have will continue because they have the control over the money they hand out, understand?

Many don’t realize the wealth that is accumulated is not the governments to take but the person who makes it. A lot of people fall into this idea that the government needs that money to do good things, like promote single parent homes or give the girl who is 17 and have 5 kids money to waste while her boyfriend beats her kids while she is at the bar. In reality, the government got a long great until 1912 and a lot of positive things were going on without this windfall of money. From 1913 (when they legally took our money) to date, our government has grown to the size that the founding fathers wanted to avoid.

Now as for being democrat or republican spending money on this or that, both are in the pocket of big business, the dems will surely spend the money but they will tax us more. The republicans on the other hand will do the same – no difference.

Halliburton? Who cares? Really it does not matter about no-bid contracts because we have allowed our country to get to the point where not many companies will or are able to do what Halliburton can do, believe me try selling to the government to find out what you have to do to be on a bidders or preferred vendors list.

 

[bryan]

Hi

Oh I don't beleive in the income tax system.But I feel that if I have to pay then everybody should have to pay and I really don't beleive in trickle down economics.Just look at the auto industry; from 1995 to 2000 US auto companies had their best years ever based on US sales. Unless trickle down means down below the border then the system did't work. That money didn't go to any one but shareholders and to build plants in other countries.

Paying a company billions of dollar to provide protection to US convoys and diplomats is gouging.Paying millions of dollars for somebody to put a septic system on the roof of an Iragi police station was just plain stupid.Yes it did leak and yes we will pay to build a new police station.I think that that money would of been better spent in this country.Like maybe fixing the potholes on I75 or finishing I840 in Nashville.

We are turning our military into a for hire corporation.Which means they will start more wars just to show a profit.Give Mexicans jobs.

 

[Bugsy Siegel]

A dishonest politician??? Say it isn't so!

 

[letzrockexpress]

This goes back a half a mile or so into this post, but just to clear up one misnomer, Most Indians are Muslims, not Hindu. Granted there are millions of Hindu but even more Muslims in India...

 

[letzrockexpress]

The facts presented here about who pays the most taxes in our country are quite correct. The richest people in America pay the most taxes. The reason people complain about the middle class being overtaxed is because of what is leftover after taxes. The tax bracket for someone who earns $55,000.00 + I think is right around 38%.(Don't attack me if I am wrong about the exact percentage, I am just trying to make a point)Well, 38% of a yearly income leaves 62% (excluding state and local taxes) If someone has a taxable income of let's say $150,000 dollars yearly, they are left with $93,000.00.If someone has a taxable income of $60,000.00 per year, they are left with $37,200.00. Did the richer person pay more taxes? Yes. Does he or she have more spendable income. Absolutely.(nearly 3 times as much.) Having said all that, I don't have a problem with it. If you need more money, make yourself more employable, i.e. get better educated, etc. There are many programs offered by the government (thanks mainly to democrats) that can help people improve their station in life. In other words, if someone wants to be as comfortable as the fat cats, do what the fat cats have done. Government doesn't owe any one a tax break, left or right.
As far as Haliburton is concerned, Is there another company that can do as good or even close to as good of a job supplying and in effect "running" a war?? I don't have a clue if there is or not, but my issue with Haliburton is that they are wrapped up way too tight with our President and Vice President. With all the money this company stood to make on this war and still stand to make, and the fact that our 2 top leaders, or at least our number 2 leader hold as much stock as they do in Haliburton, Who is to say it wasn't in fact Haliburton's idea to attact in the first place??? It is not as far fetched as it sounds. It is called collusion my friends and it happens every day....anyway,just my 2 cents.

 

[greg334]

“This goes back a half a mile or so into this post, but just to clear up one misnomer, Most Indians are Muslims, not Hindu. Granted there are millions of Hindu but even more Muslims in India...â€

Ah… dude go to India and see, there are far more Hindu’s there than there are Muslims!

What do you think all the problems have been between the Hindus and Muslims in the Kashmir area of the country and the initial split of the whole of India in 1947 was caused by?

The break down is like this; Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.1% - their 2001 census.

Also I wanted to add this; wealthy people don’t pay income tax because they don’t have an income.

What I mean is that a lot of the wealthy in this country pay capital gains taxes if any at all. Most people who have the real wealth live off of investments and simply don’t have an income like you or I. A lot of them don’t even pay capital gains taxes because they invest in tax exempt funds, funding public projects, etc..

The problem that most have with using class warfare is when speaking about taxes is exactly what was mentioned “If you need more money, make yourself more employable, i.e. get better educated, etc.†in where the successful are not look upon as examples but as evil. And further more when some think “There are many programs offered by the government (thanks mainly to democrats) that can help people improve their station in life. In other words, if someone wants to be as comfortable as the fat cats, do what the fat cats have done.â€, it shows that there needs to be less of these programs and more of a positive image in society of success and wealth. It also shows that the government is not a solution in any way when it comes to equaling the playing field of life. The problem is the money needs to come from somewhere and it is take from the evil rich person/company and give to someone else. When you have the idea that we ‘must’ do something to help people be equal to others, it turns into what we have today, a big mess with a workforce that is becoming more uneducated and more dependent on government to do the thinking and living for them.

Success comes from perseverance and taking upon one’s self a need to accomplish one goal after another. Wealth is the tool to accomplish higher goals in life. As a religious twist to this, wealth is used to help others and to devote more time to God, but that is for another post.

We have hit one of the most important milestones that any country could ever hit, we now have more people receiving some sort of AID from the government than we have working. It is a sad illustration on the real and true progress we made from New Deal to the Great Society to today. We have stepped backwards several times over and need to seriously look at how we can solve these problems in our society before we have three forth of the country getting something and a quarter working.

I would really recommend for those who think I am off base to read this;

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010281

And really think about it. This article is another examination of something that many still can’t figure out. I have two books written about the New Deal, one from 1943 and the other from 1957, both of them were on the money about our future and the disaster that will appear. I mean none of you lived through the 30’s as an adult and even when it looked like there were no opportunities, there were. I know that many people who actually prospered after hitting rock bottom and as I have said, my generation and the ones following mine will not have the privilege to be able to think for ourselves and many will become dependent on others without knowing what freedom is about.

The simple solution for a lot of problems is changing the tax system to capture this wealth a different way, which leads me back to the FairTax and if you read anything about it, you will see what I am talking about.