New York Times Rips Pelosi's Porker Pig Out

Nancy neeeds a new *** after this ripping ny the NYT.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/opinion/30intro.html?pagewanted=print
March 30, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
Pork Goes to War
By THOMAS SCHATZ
EMERGENCY spending bills are called "Christmas trees," for the unrelated
"ornaments" that are added by members of Congress. (They are exempt from
budget rules and are almost never vetoed, making them magnets for pork.) The
nickname is usually not literal, but the Senate's version of the fiscal 2007
supplemental appropriations bill that passed yesterday includes, among
scores of other nonessential items, money for Christmas-tree growers.

Behind all their lofty rhetoric about the Iraq war and bringing home the
troops, members of the House and Senate were busy tacking on $20 billion and
$18.5 billion respectively in unrelated spending to President Bush's $103
billion request. (He intends to veto the bill.)

Despite their campaign talk about earmark reform last fall, the new
Democratic leadership shamelessly used pork to buy votes - before the vote,
Representatives Collin Peterson of Minnesota and Peter DeFazio of Oregon
acknowledged that add-ons for their districts would influence their
decisions.

The heavyweights also led by example: the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid
of Nevada, added $20 million to eradicate Mormon crickets, and David Obey of
Wisconsin, the House Appropriations Committee chairman, came away with $283
million for the Milk Income Loss Contract Program.

This chart (PDF), which is a partial list of some of the most egregious
earmarks, shows that the new bosses are already feeding at the trough, and
"war pork" threatens to sink their fiscal credibility.

Thomas Schatz is the president of Citizens Against Government Waste, a
nonprofit group in Washington.




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