The World Turned Upside Down

Just when I thought the current climate in Washington had reached a level of partisanship hitherto unimagined, several lawmakers have surprised me.

The Good
Russ Feingold (D-WI)

He’s been off my radar for a while, but just as I had written him off as a pawn of the president, he surprises me. First with his support for the line item veto along with John McCain (R-AZ) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). This shows a commitment to slashing pork that periodically makes its way into appropriations bills. An article explaining the importance of this issue in the war on pork can be found here.

In another major move, Feingold has joined with colleague Evan Bayh (D-IN) in opposing President Obama’s omnibus spending bill according to an article found here. As I have written in my previous posts, these omnibus spending bills that Obama is proposing are loaded with pork and bypass much of the traditional process of committee markup. Therefore, these two Democrats deserve much praise for breaking with the popular president on this issue.

The Bad
David Vitter (R-LA)

In a state noted for rising stars within the partly like Governor Bobby Jindal and Congressman Joseph Cao, Vitter and his stupidity simply will not go away. First there was the DC Madam scandal, which has completely undermined any credibility he has on social issues. Now, according to an article found here, Vitter is becoming a hypocrite on spending issues as well, requesting millions of dollars in earmarks in the Obama Omnibus spending bill. The frustration I feel at Vitter is truly beyond description. One of the major attacks that Republicans can mount against Obama is that his appropriations bills intended to stimulate the economy are becoming convoluted Christmas trees of goodies doled out to special interests. With morons like Vitter running around in the party, this line of attack has been undermined. This guy is worse than the other senator from Louisiana, Mary Landrieu (D), who has requested millions of dollars in earmarks as well. Vitter just needs to go away. Maybe somebody like Cao, who doesn’t really have a safe seat in the house, could step up and primary him. Granted Vitter has a great deal of institutional support, but this stain on the party needs to be removed.

So, it seems that for whatever reason, the era of Obama is indeed bringing surprises. Stupid Republicans and Democrats who have seen the light. The world has been turned upside down!

Jindal Goes Vesuvius on Volcano Appropriations

As Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal pointed out during his recent much maligned speech responding to Barack Obama’s faux State of the Nation Address, there is some real garbage in the recent stimulus.  Once again, lawmakers have insisted upon inserting huge amounts of pork into this bill that was supposed to be about job creation and stimulating the economy.

Even worse than the usual dosage of pork that we get from congress, the pork in this bill is especially egregious in that this bill was never properly marked up in committee.  Rather, the Administration rammed a compromise version through congress, refusing to allow even 12 hours for members to review the bill.  The justification for this was the need for “quick” action.  As a result of this threat construction, numerous appropriations in the bill that no one ever read are most likely known to no one but their authors and a few members of leadership.

It was these wasteful and un-justified appropriations that Bobby Jindal was attacking in his recent speech.  Specifically, he targeted funding of certain volcano monitoring programs that the stimulus has apparently felt necessary.  In response, the media has chastised him for daring to question funding for such important programs that save lives when active volcanoes explode.

Admittedly, Jindal could have selected a much better target for his ire, and there are many, to avoid these attacks.  However, the central issue remains.  I seriously doubt that these volcano monitoring programs will significantly increase jobs.  While I’m not an expert, I assume they will primarily require one time installation labor, and perhaps a few individuals to monitor them.  Furthermore, the kinds of people that will be employed through this appropriation are the well-educated elite that are not the class most effected by the recent economic downturn.  No blue-collar, low-income individuals will benefit from this.

In light of this, it seems that the volcano monitoring initiative does not meet the threshold of credibility for inclusion in the stimulus.  While this may well be a worthwhile and even necessary program to fund, there is no reason that it can’t be included in the regular appropriations bill for the Interior Department.  We have known about the danger that volcanoes pose to communities for years.  If this program was so necessary, why hasn’t the money been appropriated before?

In conclusion, the main problem that I see here is procedural.  If we justify circumventing the traditional appropriations process for this non-emergency program and others, we will ultimately find ourselves up to our eyeballs in earmarks as the committee review process is ignored more and more often.  This ought not to be the direction the Democratic Congress wants to go down after prommising to be the most “open” and “ethical” ever only two years ago.