Mixed messages

Democrats are busy defending the 8,500+ earmarks stuffed into the $410 billion spending bill the House passed yesterday. Only $8 billion (only!) is made up of pork – most of the money funds the government’s day-to-day operations. Still, a day after their president pledged to reign in spending and cut the deficit in half by the end of his term, this bill is a hard sell on top of the nearly $800 billion stimulus package.

Republicans, including John McHugh, are sending mixed messages of their own. Not surprisingly, GOP leaders are slamming the bill as little more than big, fat slabs of bacon. From the New York Times:

Republicans, however, did not mince words in describing the spending bill as wasteful. And one watchdog group said the bill provided nearly $8 billion for more than 8,500 pet projects favored by lawmakers, including $1.7 million for a honey bee laboratory in Weslaco, Tex.; $346,000 for research on apple fire blight in Michigan and New York; and $1.5 million for work on grapes and grape products, including wine.

OK. Well, that same watchdog group could easily have frowned upon these “pet projects”: $95,000 for a mountain mining exhibit? Half a million for a sewer system in a town we’ve never heard of? $350,000 for video cameras on the border in the middle of nowhere? $95,000 for a rail station practically in Quebec?

Those are all member items for Republican John McHugh, ones he was proud enough to send out press releases about even as his party butchers the legislation as wasteful spending.

Member items? Or pork? Fact is, one person’s pork is another person’s critical project. You can bet Raquette Lake, Canastota, Franklin County, and Rouses Point don’t consider these projects “pork”.