[Blood of Tyrants]

I tremble to think what kind of riders were stuffed into it to get the Rats on board.

[Orangedog]

Democrats objected to provisions they said will allow the Bush administration to threaten the overtime pay of millions of workers;

Hope the GOP isn't counting on the votes of the people they just screwed out of overtime pay. BTW, this is how the extension of the assault weapons ban will get passed and signed into law this year.

[BJClinton]

...what it will do to working families and women and veterans

What? No mention of minorities or the elderly? Sen. Edwards appears to have lost his copy of the Dimocrats talking points.

[jgrubbs]

Includes the following pork projects:

$725,000 Please Touch Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
$200,000 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Cleveland, Ohio
$1,800,000 2003 Women’s World Cup Tournament
$6,000,000 Police Athletic League
$250,000 Call Me Mister program, Clemson University
$500,000 New England Amer-I-Can Program
$150,000 Rock School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
$16,000 National Distance Running Hall of Fame, Utica, New York
$225,000 Hawaii statehood celebration
$325,000 Construction of a swimming pool in Salinas, California
$100,000 History competition during National History Day in Iowa
$175,000 Therapeutic Horse man ship center, Hoffman Homes for Youth, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
$315,000 Formosan Subterranean Termite research
$100,000 Public service recognition week
$50,000 Father Maloney’s Boy’s Haven, Louisville, Kentucky
$75,000 Vintage Radio Programs and Jazz Museum, East Stroudsburg University
$100,000 Kids Rock Free educational program, Fender Museum of the Arts Foundation, Corona, California
$100,000 Renovation of the historic Coca-Cola building in Macon, Georgia
$100,000 Construction of an intergenerational daycare center in San Fernando Valley, California
$372,000 B&O Railroad Museum emergency restoration, Baltimore, Maryland
$75,000 Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, Washington, DC
$225,000 Construction of Blue-Gray Civil War Theme Park, Kentucky
$75,000 North Pole Transit System JARC Program, Alaska
$250,000 Feasibility study of establishing Suffolk (Virginia) Workforce Development Center
$350,000 Construction for a folk cultural center in Pinellas County, Florida
$400,000 Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
$90,000 Olive fruitfly research
$150,000 Traffic light, Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District, New York
$100,000 People for People, Inc., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
$100,000 Amphitheater construction, North Star Productions, Inc., Bracken County, Kentucky
$2,000,000 First Tee program
$150,000 Regional Youth Baseball Complex Lancaster, California
$100,000 John Singelton Mosby Museum Foundation in Warrenton, Virginia
$180,000 Seafood waste research, Fairbanks, Alaska
$400,000 Walla Walla Public Schools, Walla Walla, Washington
$900,000 Kincaid Park Trail Connection, Alaska
$20,000 Southern Star Development Corporation, Louisville, Kentucky
$85,000 Comprehensive Transportation Plan for Lewisburg, West Virginia
$100,000 Norman Hall project, University of Florida
$225,000 Museum of Aviation Foundation Inc, Warner Robins, Georgia
$250,000 Lou Frey Institute of Politics, University of Central Florida
$270,000 Sustainable olive production
$5,000,000 Kennedy Center Potomac River Pedestrian and Bike Path
$100,000 National Civil War Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
$200,000 Cedar glades research
$250,000 Theater construction, Studio for the Arts, Pocahontas, Arkansas
$2,000,000 Intermodal Transload Facility, Quincy, Washington
$110,000 Construction of a dental clinic in Bassfield, Mississippi
$220,000 New Mexico Retail Association, Albuquerque, New Mexico
$400,000 Davenport Music History Museum, Davenport, Iowa
$3,000,000 US 12 Widening, Wallula Junction to Walla Walla, Washington
$25,000 Alex Haley House Museum, Henning, Tennessee
$225,000 Rialto Square Theater, Joliet, Illinois
$5,000,000 Project SOCRATES
$90,000 Rabbit Run Community Arts Association, Madison, Ohio
$150,000 Renovation off Farmers market, Dallas, Texas
$200,000 Merit School of Music’s after school program
$200,000 Advanced Traffic Analysis Center, North Dakota
$250,000 Nevada Test Site Oral History Project
$400,000 National Center for American Revolution, Wayne, Pennsylvania
$1,000,000 Hal Rogers Parkway, Kentucky
$1,000,000 Ship Creek Improvements, Alaska
$2,000,000 I-SAFE America
$50,000 National Canal Museum, Easton, Pennsylvania
$100,000 Mystic Seaport, the Museum of America and the Sea
$200,000 Renovation of First National Bank Building, Greenfield, Massachusetts
$250,000 Martha’s Village and Kitchen, Indio, California
$270,000 Potato storage
$1,000,000 Transylvania Community Hospital, Brevard, North Carolina
$6,000,000 Treasure Island Bridge
$80,000 Hot Springs Bike Trail, Arkansas
$90,000 Karnal bunt research, Manhattan, Kansas
$175,000 Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, Kansas
$210,000 O. Winston Link Museum, Roanoke, Virginia
$250,000 James S. Taylor Memorial Home, Louisville, Kentucky
$250,000 Museum of Broadcast Communications, Chicago, Illinois
$500,000 Traffic Signal Replacement Program, New Rochelle, New York
$2,000,000 Parents Anonymous
$100,000 "Servicing our Youth"
$275,000 Refurbishment of the Coach George E. Ford Center, Powder Springs, Georgia
$150,000 Piper’s Opera House Programs, Inc., Virginia City, Nevada
$270,000 U.S. Vegetable Lab
$1,250,000 US-2, Dover Bridge, Bonner County, Idaho
$25,000 Capitol Area Boy Scouts
$113,000 Healing Place, Louisville, Kentucky
$500,000 Jim Thorpe Bridge Renovation Project, Pennsylvania
$600,000 Web Wise Kids
$800,000 Mammoth Lakes Bus Purchase, California
$100,000 Renovate the Jamestown (Ohio) Opera House
$400,000 Ed Roberts Campus transit center, California
$750,000 The Doe Fund’s Ready, Willing & Able program
$160,000 Grapevine Bus Purchase, Texas
$500,000 Round Rock Higher Education Center, Southwest Texas State University
$1,400,000 Translational Genomics Research Institute, Phoenix, Arizona
$25,000 Transylvania County, North Carolina, Sheriff’s Citizens Observer Patrol and Education Team
$200,000 Chaldean Community Culture Center, West Bloomfield, Michigan
$300,000 Milwaukee Summer Stars
$450,000 Johnny Appleseed Heritage Center, Inc., Ashland County, Ohio
$750,000 Intelligent Transportation Systems, Wichita Transit Authority
$1,500,000 Operation Streetsweeper
$125,000 Planning for new route over Cape Fear River, North Carolina
$300,000 Omnitrans—Paratransit Vehicles, California
$500,000 Bike path, St. Petersburg, Florida
$1,000,000 WestStart Vehicular Flywheel Project, Washington
$15,000 Pines of Peace, Inc., Ontario, New York
$75,000 U.S. Dream Academy, Inc., Columbia, Maryland
$200,000 Oneont Bus Replacement, New York
$450,000 Trout Genome Mapping
$500,000 LOVE Social Services, Fairbanks, Alaska
$750,000 Broken Bow rail spur, Oklahoma
$2,000,000 Tools for Tolerance program, California
$150,000 National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation
$1,000,000 DelTrac Statewide Integration, Delaware

[blowfish]

With 'victories' like this, who needs defeats?

[Pagey]

In 1931 Pork-barrel spending began in earnest...Congress introduced an act to provide flood relief to farmers in six affected states. By the time the bill made its way through Congress, farmers in fifteen states became its beneficiaries. One Oklahoma congressman succinctly summarized the new beggar-thy-neighbor spending ethic that had overtaken Capitol Hill: "I do not believe in this pie business, but 9 we are making a great big pie here ... then I want to cut it into enough pieces so that Oklahoma will have its piece."

Look just how far we have gone, since 1931. That should put the fear of God into everyone,well that and Hillary becoming a Senator of course.

[rintense]

This is one senator who's going to leave it because of what it will do to working families and women and veterans of this country."

Is anyone else tired of this one-trick pony phrase?

[CSM]

To put the entire budget in context these are the numbers:

Fiscal year 2004 = $2.2 Billion (Whitehouse home page)
Number of tax payers 2001 = 128 Million (Rush Limbaugh)
My guess at an adjustment to # of taxpayers = 140 Million
2.2B/140M=$15,714 per tax payer.

Of course we all know that 50% of the adult population does not pay taxes. The reality is that each adult in America is responsible for $7,857. Talk about a divided country. Those that pay vs. those that mooch.

Now, we have also seen the story about $20,000 per household is the projected spending. 45% of that is defense. That leaves us a gap that is indicative of the weighted taxing on the wealthy, potential investors. The 45% is clearly constitutional, so that should really give all adults a burden of $3,535. At the same rate of population that pays today that would give a burden to each taxpayer of $7,071. Let's get back to the constitution and give us a 55% Federal Tax cut!

[OldFriend]

Oh no......where is the swimmer going to get his $2billion for us to all have free health care?

[stopem]

Outrageous budget and definitely NOT conservative!

[manic4organic]

Makes me ill.

[jgrubbs]

Bush to propose spending freeze

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040122-113950-1435r.htm

Brian Riedl, a budget analyst at the Heritage Foundation, said the proposal is "definitely a good start."

-"The key question is whether the White House will back up this proposal with a veto threat, because last year the president proposed a 4 percent increase and, with the passage of the omnibus spending bill, he's about to sign a 9 percent increase," he said.

If he doesn't use his veto on this omnibus spending bill and allows this 9 percent increase, then he is breaking his promise of an "increase of less than 1 percent for federal programs not related to defense or homeland security, effectively freezing discretionary spending in the next budget".

[The_Eaglet]

"Take it or leave it," Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, said angrily today in describing the Republicans' attitude. "This is one senator who's going to leave it because of what it will do to working families and women and veterans of this country."

Kennedy misses the point, as usual, but at least he didn't support the additonal spending (for the wrong reasons, of course).