"A gang of conservatives caught the College of Cardinals—the ever-arrogant chairmen of the 13 House Appropriations subcommittees—in the act of pick-pocketing taxpayers. They promptly made a citizens’ arrest. Here’s how they did it: The Cardinals are a pork-barrel cartel that conspires each year to rip-off taxpayers with unnecessary spending. They have tried-and-true tactics for doing so. First among these is setting up a schedule for appropriations bills that facilitates lying and cheating. Specifically, they always save the biggest, potentially most-pork-laden bill for last. That is the bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education. These are agencies that both Democrats and "moderate" Republicans always want to massively increase. All of Washington knows that as fall approaches—especially in an election year—the political pressure to dump pork into this bill can become overwhelming. With this bill last, appropriators pass out bills for smaller departments first. They heap these high with spending the President has not requested and that was not approved in the House budget resolution. They are not really busting that budget, they claim, because they intend to pay for this early pork by carving money later out of Labor-HHS-Education or other big bills at the end of the session. Appropriators are like Wimpy in the Popeye cartoon. They are always saying, "I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." It is a transparent lie. Rep. David Obey (D.-Wis.), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, admitted as much last Tuesday. "[I]n essence," he said, "we have a charade."
"And the Cardinals have ways of dealing with members who won’t participate in the charade. They can cut funding for projects in a congressman’s district, or increase it when he has a change of heart. But this year the appropriators ran into something new: a Band of Conservatives Who [SHALL] NOT Cower!! They started as a Gang of Four from among the members of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC). Pat Toomey (Pa.) was the prime mover, joined by Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Mike Pence (Ohio) and John Shadegg (Ariz.), chairman of the RSC. They devised a strategy to counter the Cardinals."
I'd like to think Dubyuh's in good with the GangofFour; however, even if he wasn't before, he should be now...we need to see REAL, SIGNIFICANT, non-inflation-adjusted DECREASES IN SPENDING in each of the agencies noted above!!
"Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education' Shall Be Slashed!!!
FReegards...MUD