Pages

Friday, March 30, 2007

Buddy, Can You Spare A Pork Chop?

A former Los Ososian, now self-described as “Smiling in the foothills [of the Sierras] with septic management, “ wrote me to inquire why the recent huge Congressional War Bill contains a Pile o’ Pork but didn’t contain one thin dime for wastewater treatment funds for poor old Los Osos. Beats me. Maybe if Los Osos manufactured Christmas Ornaments for the Senate Gift Shop it might get some help? Or what if Los Osos promised to donate land to put up sheds for “peanut storage?” That’d be a $74 mil windfall right there. We could promise to store the peanuts at the sewer plant?

Herewith the email:

Ann, please read these funds and tell me where we get a red dime.

It works out to $130 million or so per vote in the House. The GOA detailed some of this list of the pork that is in the bill that the Senate passed yesterday. As we all know, there's $25 million for a spinach farmer, $24 million for funding for sugar beets, $3 million in funding for sugar cane going to one Hawaiian co-op. There's $20 million for insect infestation damage reimbursements in Nevada, Idaho and Utah; $2.1 billion for crop production losses; one and a half billion for livestock production losses; $100 million for dairy production losses; $13 million for ewe lamb replacement and retention; $32 million for the livestock indemnity program; $40 million for the Tree Assistance Program. The bill includes $74 million for peanut storage; $25 million for spinach growers.

There's a hundred million dollars for small agricultural dependent businesses. Look at how much pork is in this bill for farming- and agricultural-related industries. Six million for North Dakota flooded crop land; $35 million for emergency conservation programs; $50 million for the Emergency Watershed Program. This is in the bill that the Democrats in the House and Senate passed yesterday to pull troops out of Iraq in March of 2008 and not fund the surge. One-hundred-fifteen million dollars for the Conservation Security Program. It was earlier, $35 million for the Emergency Conservation Program, and then another $115 million for the Conservation Security Program, which proves much of the redundancy in all these federal programs, it is pathetic. There's $18 million for drought assistance in the upper Great Plains and in the Southwest; $6 million for the North Dakota flooded crop land and $18 million for drought assistance in the upper Great Plains in the Southwest (a provision that extends the availability by a year); $3.5 million dollars in funding for guided tours of the Capitol is in this bill. Also, it has a provision that allows transfer of funds from holiday ornament sales in the Senate Gift Shop, and $165.9 million for fisheries disaster relief funded through NOAA. This includes $60.4 million for salmon fisheries in the Klamath Basin region; $12 million for forest service money. There's $425 million for education grants for rural areas, the Secure Rural Schools Program. There's $640 million for something called LIHEAP; Low Income Energy Assistance is What LIHEAP is. $25 million for asbestos abatement at the Capitol Power Plant; $388.9 million for funding for backlog of old Department of Transportation projects; $22.8 million for geothermal research and development; $500 million for wildfire fire management; $13 million for mine safety technology research; $31 million for a one month extension of the Milk Income Lost Contract Program. Low Income Energy Assistance is What LIHEAP is? Okay, what was that number on LIHEAP? That's $640 million for Low Income Energy Assistance.

Fifty million for Fisheries Disaster Mitigation Fund; $100 million for security at the presidential candidate nominating conventions; and $2 million for the University of Vermont. Plus: $6.4 million for the House of Representatives Salaries and Expenses Account.


No, Ann this is [********], not anything for Los Osos, Why?
Posted by Churadogs at 6:17 AM

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is no money for Los Osos because the CSD Board stopped the project that was under construction. Ms. Capps did all she could to hoard some funding for the project, but the action to stop the Tri-W project killed any chance that she had of getting the funding included in a bill.

The political uncertainty here, and the inability for the people of this town to settle on a project and go with it also probably cost us Prop 50 State funds, as well, last year.

Oh, yeah, when people protest every major decision by their political body, and file lawsuits at the drop of a hat, contractors get very nervous about investing their companies' future here, and the bids come in 40% or more over the engineer's estimate.

There are consequences for the actions of this community. Why don't people get this?

9:05 AM, March 30, 2007
Mike Green said...

Most of the pork goes to disasters that have already happened, wait until those 200-300/mo. bills hit and we see grannies pushing their belongings down LOVR in a hand cart.
That may set some congresspersons hair on fire.

9:16 AM, March 30, 2007
*PG-13 said...

Pork, pork, pork, pork .....
which is just another word for Spam.
Monty Python got it dead on right with their spam song.
Their Spam skit is a near perfect representation of our US Congress at work. It even includes a short war report. How they got it sooooo right and how well it has stood the test of time is amazing. I nominate the Spam Song to be the official song of Washingtom D.C.

Not trying to be overly redundant but .....

> $25 million for a spinach farmer
> $24 million for funding for sugar beets,
> $3 million in funding for sugar cane
> $20 million for insect infestation damage reimbursements
> $2.1 billion for crop production losses;
> one and a half billion for livestock production losses;
> $100 million for dairy production losses;
> $13 million for ewe lamb replacement and retention;
> $32 million for the livestock indemnity program;
> $40 million for the Tree Assistance Program.
> $74 million for peanut storage;
> a hundred million dollars for small agricultural dependent businesses.
> Six million for North Dakota flooded crop land;
> $35 million for emergency conservation programs;
> $50 million for the Emergency Watershed Program.
> One-hundred-fifteen million dollars for the Conservation Security Program.
> $18 million for drought assistance in the upper Great Plains and in the Southwest;
> $3.5 million dollars in funding for guided tours of the Capitol
> $165.9 million for fisheries disaster relief funded through NOAA.
> $425 million for education grants for rural areas,
> $640 million for ... Low Income Energy Assistance
> $25 million for asbestos abatement at the Capitol Power Plant;
> $388.9 million for funding for backlog of old Department of Transportation projects;
> $22.8 million for geothermal research and development;
> $500 million for wildfire fire management;
>$13 million for mine safety technology research;
> $31 million for a one month extension of the Milk Income Lost Contract Program.
> Fifty million for Fisheries Disaster Mitigation Fund;
> $100 million for security at the presidential candidate nominating conventions;
> $2 million for the University of Vermont.
> $6.4 million for the House of Representatives Salaries and Expenses Account.

And not a penny for a sewer. Anywhere. Go figure.

I just don't get it. What do any of these have to do with not funding the surge and getting our troops out of Iraq? I appreciate our government works (using the term very very loosely) based on a long established tradition of I'll scratch yours if you scratch mine. But this is obscene. If this is what it takes to get an excruciatingly narrow legislative victory for something the past election clearly indicated was a priority the Democrats have failed big time. They've fallen flat, flat and flat on their faces. No, better make that 'their asses'. Both sides of the congress should be embarrassed but most especially the Democrats. If this is victory I can only wonder what failure looks like.

I heard another factoid yesterday which sheds an interesting perspective on the problem. Of next year's proposed $3 trillion federal budget "... 40% of the annual budget is immediately sucked up by retirement payments and health care for the elderly, poor and disabled. Another 20 percent goes to the military. Throw in Homeland Security, veterans and other national security programs, and you've already taken up 80 percent of the federal budget — or more than $2 trillion. ... The domestic programs, education, transportation, justice, environment — things people think of when they think of government — only make up 17 percent of the budget" ( NPR story) The national debt is now $8.8 Trillion (give or take a few dollars), last year we paid 406 Billion dollars on the interest alone. That's the third largest line item expense in the budget. (Defense is first.)

I'm getting a headache. I think I'll climb back into bed.

10:36 AM, March 30, 2007
Churadogs said...

It will nver happen, of course, because We The People keep electing and re-electing these folks, but I'd like to see a Congress that voted to pass a rule that would result in Line Item BILLS, that is One Law, One Bill; One Funding Request, One Bill. That way, each vote would be for or agains one single item. Wanna spend $45 million on storing peanuts, go right ahead, 'splain it, defend it, justify it, then vote Yay or nay on it. But Stop Hiding Stuff, then using these portmanteau bills to get your gravy and/or bash your opponent : "So & So Voted FOR/AGAINST BIll # Such And Such, Therefore He's An Evil (pick one) Democrat/Republican," when the reason he voted against such and such was because it was 90% one thing and only 10% whatever (or vice versa), and so forth.

Well, I'll dream on. The American People have the government we deserve, so we can't complain too much about the awful messes our elected messengers get us into. We the People ARE the US.

6:50 AM, March 31, 2007
Anonymous said...

Line item Bills? Excellent idea! Your best idea yet!

With the dickering the legislature would never get anything done.

That would be a good thing.

9:57 AM, March 31, 2007
Anonymous said...

Los Osos had it's chance, and it blew it, big time.

If the morons of the community: CCLO, CASE, all the other monkey-wrench throwers had not snarled the works with lawsuits that they LOST (at least 12 of them!!) we could have broken ground and had our damned sewer a reality. But NOOOOO, the "MOVE THE SEWER" crown just HAD to have THEIR WAY!

If people had just let things be, we would have had a nice $30 million grant via Lois Capps, but the selfish bastards of Los Osos had some halucination that Los Osos could "start over"! NOT SO!

Los Osos is in the bowl, circling the drain. I wouldn't blame lawmakers if they turned their backs completely on the nasty little burg of dinky, stinky Los Osos.

My only hope is that all those miserable malcontents- the Al, Keith and Julie crowd- are the first ones to have to vacate Los Osos. Unfortunately, so many decent, trusting, gullible, mostly-older folks will be in the exodus, also.

4:57 PM, March 31, 2007
Churadogs said...

Anon sez:"Line item Bills? Excellent idea! Your best idea yet!

With the dickering the legislature would never get anything done.

That would be a good thing."

Actually, even bills that manage to concentrate on one thing undergo dickering -- that's part of the process and is a good thing since input from a variety of sources can help craft much better bills. So things would get done pretty much in the same way they get done now. What would be avoided is all the blackmail and phony politicing and pork, stuff that weakens this nation by bleeding it dry under color of "legislation" that has zip to do with zip.

7:00 AM, April 01, 2007

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)