Giving you the facts — your taxes hardly at work.
April 5th, 2007 by Matt
The U.S. Senate recently passed a war-spending bill to further fund the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Regardless of how you feel about the war, none of us want to see our troops going without food, shelter, or protective equipment, and we all want them back as soon as possible. Not to sound fatalistic, but see, with politicians, there’s always a hitch.
This nugget of pyrite comes to us c/o the Washington D.C. Examiner:
Like their counterparts in the House, the Senate has larded its version of an “emergency” war spending bill with nearly $20 billion in pork-barrel outlays, including $100 million for the two major political parties’ 2008 presidential conventions.
The $100 million for the political party conventions — $50 million for the Democratic convention in Denver and $50 million for the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn. — is included in a section described as “Katrina recovery, veterans’ care and for other purposes.”
“Other purposes” — nice.
But this is supposed to okey and also dokey because: “The Senate Appropriations Committee noted that the committee provided roughly $50 million to help defray the costs of policing the 2004 conventions.”
So, let me get this straight — the two parties with a stranglehold on our political system are throwing parties for themselves, and we’re helping to foot the bill. Maybe someone needs sit the Senate Appropriations Committee down like a four-year-old and explain that just because you did something naughty before and didn’t get caught that it doesn’t make it okay to do it again.
Before my vitriol percolates so much that the coffee of my logic makes no sense (see, it’s already happening!), let’s put $100 million into perspective. With that money, we could build 500-1000 new homes in post-Katrina New Orleans. And according to the World Food Programme, 19 cents will feed a school child in a developing country for one day. With $100 million we could feed 1,441,961 completely impoverished children for a year.
To quote our pal Jeff Tweedy, ax-slinger and lead-singer of Wilco: “Republicans and Democrats can’t give you the facts.” Well, we do. We always will.
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