OK....I have been thinking. It would be interesting to start a thread actually looking at what congress spends our taxes on. John McCain is one of my favorite people in Congress, not because he is a Republican, but because he is one of the premier leaders at identifying and cutting pork from our budget.
He does not identify pork based on the merits or the the cause, but he looks at bills that:
*contain unauthorized appropriations
*unrequested funding specifically for localy specific earmarks and research facility-specific funding, and funding that circumvents the normal competitve award process
*budget add-ons to bills
*transfer of federal property that do not follow the exhisting law
*new items added to bills after the bill passed through committee
Examples of pork for 2002 include according to Mr. McCain (remember it is not based on the merits of the spending but the manner in which it was attempted to sneak the funding through) are:
1.6 Million for Midland College in TX for a safety program for students thinking about entering the oil industry
$6 million for the Thayer School of Engineering for the nanocrystalline materials and biomass research initiative
$2.2 million for the Center for Cooland Cold Water Aquaculture in Leetown, West Virginia
$4.5 million for the US Vegetable Laboratory in Charlestown, SC
$100, 000 for the Weed IT Now intiative in MA, NY, and CT
$320,000 for ANIMAL WASTE management in Oklahoma
$600, 000 for the tri-state joint peanut research project in AL
Lest you think the Senator does not look at Military Spending:
One bill contained a $2.6 billion per year ( WOW....per year over 10-years) apropriation to lease 100 767 Aircraft. Congress added 4 737 aircraft to the bill for their own travel use.
McCain points out that this leasing plane is 5X more expensive
than it was to just buy the planes. These planes were to be leased from Boeing. On top of it all, this was not even on the top 60 things the AIr Force requested funding for. By itself this appropriation would have funded 30% of the Air Forces top 60 priorities. The planes according to McCain do not even appear in the 6-year plan for Air force needs.
You may not like conservatives, and you may not like the things McCain stands for.......
But......if you want to figure out how to pay for Universal Health......
This is one person that I have faith in to figure out what to cut. It makes sense to start here........with fighting wasted money before threatening to raise taxes.
I am wondering how many of you have ideas or look into how your money and mine is spent frivolously. Please share them if you have them.....
Thanks
Peace to all.
Link to McCain's site:
http://www.mccain2000.com/contents/mccainreport/
He does not identify pork based on the merits or the the cause, but he looks at bills that:
*contain unauthorized appropriations
*unrequested funding specifically for localy specific earmarks and research facility-specific funding, and funding that circumvents the normal competitve award process
*budget add-ons to bills
*transfer of federal property that do not follow the exhisting law
*new items added to bills after the bill passed through committee
Examples of pork for 2002 include according to Mr. McCain (remember it is not based on the merits of the spending but the manner in which it was attempted to sneak the funding through) are:
1.6 Million for Midland College in TX for a safety program for students thinking about entering the oil industry
$6 million for the Thayer School of Engineering for the nanocrystalline materials and biomass research initiative
$2.2 million for the Center for Cooland Cold Water Aquaculture in Leetown, West Virginia
$4.5 million for the US Vegetable Laboratory in Charlestown, SC
$100, 000 for the Weed IT Now intiative in MA, NY, and CT
$320,000 for ANIMAL WASTE management in Oklahoma
$600, 000 for the tri-state joint peanut research project in AL
Lest you think the Senator does not look at Military Spending:
One bill contained a $2.6 billion per year ( WOW....per year over 10-years) apropriation to lease 100 767 Aircraft. Congress added 4 737 aircraft to the bill for their own travel use.
McCain points out that this leasing plane is 5X more expensive
than it was to just buy the planes. These planes were to be leased from Boeing. On top of it all, this was not even on the top 60 things the AIr Force requested funding for. By itself this appropriation would have funded 30% of the Air Forces top 60 priorities. The planes according to McCain do not even appear in the 6-year plan for Air force needs.
You may not like conservatives, and you may not like the things McCain stands for.......
But......if you want to figure out how to pay for Universal Health......
This is one person that I have faith in to figure out what to cut. It makes sense to start here........with fighting wasted money before threatening to raise taxes.
I am wondering how many of you have ideas or look into how your money and mine is spent frivolously. Please share them if you have them.....
Thanks
Peace to all.
Link to McCain's site:
http://www.mccain2000.com/contents/mccainreport/
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