Posted on 07/09/2008 9:32:44 AM PDT by Fox_Mulder77
In an attempt to garner a few extra votes this November, Rep. Ron Klein sent $1,635,000 to South Florida in the form of earmarks hidden away in the Fiscal 2009 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act.
He went after the teacher's union vote by dishing out $585,000 to provide a teacher mentoring and training program. Broward Community College received $200,000 for aviation equipment. Palm Beach Community College was given $300,000 for equipment and technology. $175,000 was given to the Jewish Federation of Broward County, Davie for a program that gives demonstrations on family caregivers. And he also decided to give Holy Cross Hospital $375,000 for facilities and equipment.
I guess he feels it's his job to give money to the community he serves. He isn't the only one: $277 million was packed into this bill in the form of earmarks. Money that doesn't receive scrutiny. The money was never requested by any government agencies, and no hearings were held to discover if the money is actually needed or not.
So Klein happily joins the other "pork" spenders in Congress, tossing out cash to groups and organizations that can get them the votes they need to get re-elected. I guess it's hard to say no to a Congressman that happily hands out tax payer cash in the form of earmarks.
Like it or not, when you send trillions of dollars to the federal goobermint every year, people expect their congresscritters and senators to bring some of that back home.
Why the feds need to take so much, only to (unfairly and inefficiently) redistribute it back to the states is another question, entirely.
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