Posted on 07/29/2005 5:16:53 AM PDT by OESY
President Bush had to twist a lot of arms to squeak his Central American Free Trade Agreement through Congress this week [as] Members prepared for the August recess by throwing themselves a giant spending party.
Speaker Dennis Hastert... directed the House to pass a $286.4 billion highway bill. He expects Mr. Bush to sign this because it is "only" $2.4 billion more than the President's 2005 veto limit, which is "only" $28 billion more than his 2004 veto limit of $256 billion, which was "only" a 17% increase over the previous six-year highway spending level....
The bill is all about "jobs, jobs, jobs," declared Mr. Hastert, and he's right if he's referring to the Members' re-election prospects. The House version alone contained 3,700 special earmarks, doled out liberally across state and party lines.
...$25 million for his famous "Bridge to Nowhere,"... $2.5 million for freeway landscaping... $3.2 million for an extension of the longest paved recreational....
All of this points up the bill's underlying mortal failing, which is that it abandons the lesson of the 1980s that the best way to ensure abundant energy supplies is to let the price system work. At least the House-Senate conferees dropped a Senate provision that would have mandated that 10% of all electricity come from "renewable" sources by 2020, regardless of supply and demand. Although in return for killing this, the House had to drop its liability protection for producers of MTBE, a gas additive that Congress itself mandated in 1990 but now wants to feed to the trial bar.
It's too much to hope that Mr. Bush will target one of these fiascoes with his first veto; any chance of a highway veto vanished when Mr. Hastert scheduled the bill immediately after Cafta. At least the Members are leaving town for August....
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Bob Dole's legacy lives on.
"The bill is all about "jobs, jobs, jobs,"
If we could spend tax dollars and create Jobs, we would have had 100% employment for the last 75 years.
New Mexico talk radio has ads praising this bill and stating what a good job NM's Senators are doing with senority.
A-D-M advertises a great deal on Coast-to-Coast.
$286.4 billion better buy me a autobahn dammit.
Ought to be enough to buy a bunch of us some Diablos to run on that autobahn too, but alas.
Meanwhile our esteemed senior senator (read: steaming POS senator) from Muddysippi refused to discuss issues on Hannity's radio show yesterday. REFUSED. Including one question about these bloated budget bills. His only purpose on the show was to hawk his damn book.
Hey Bert, you still have residency here? I'm voting for you next time Lott is up for reelection.
Nuclear counts as renewable doesn't it? Got a big stink brewing down on the MS coast about building another reactor.
Lowndes county just spent a pot of money "creating" an industrial mega-site. Funny name for the pasture across the street from the airport but I digress. Maybe the bozos at our economic development authority can get TVA to drop a reactor out there next to the steel plant they just landed.
I will go you one better, Midland built a spec plant building out at the airport.
That's a real step down from the late 80s. Back then, that area was a top choice for building the super collider.
The thing that frosts me about our 'economic development' authority is this: They will do nothing to stop companies like the one I work for from leaving the county. That involved only about 300 jobs, only half of which would be new. The jerk in charge told a newspaper reporter when questioned that he is only interested in the "big dogs" that can bring in 500 new jobs or more. They are throwing hundreds of millions of $$ at Steelcor to locate here with maybe 500 jobs at peak. Meanwhile scads of companies like ours are leaving the county and taking hundreds of jobs out as they go.
For less than $2 mil the city could have bought and renovated an existing empty facility that is big enough to suit the needs of the company I work for. They would have made their investment back in lease payments alone in 4 years. Instead, my commute is now 80 miles daily and will be 115 miles next year if the company moves to the new $10 mil facility Tupelo is offering to build for them. And I guarantee you that my grocery money will go to Tupelo too.
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