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Congress sneaks pork into Sandy relief bill


F3SS

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These people are so out of control. Man, I feel like revolting so bad. I'm completely sick of these people taking advantage of us. We need to be able to fire these scumbags between elections. We need short limits.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/congress-accused-of-sneaking-unrelated-pork-spending-into-sandy-emergency-aid-bill-its-typical-of-washington/

CONGRESS ACCUSED OF SNEAKING UNRELATED ‘PORK’ SPENDING INTO SANDY EMERGENCY AID BILL: ‘IT’S TYPICAL OF WASHINGTON’

The Senate approved a $60.4 billion recovery package on Friday intended to help the states affected by Hurricane Sandy in November. Appearing on “Cavuto” on Friday night, American Majority Action spokesman Ron Meyer said the bill was also packed with tons of “pork” spending, some of which won’t even occur until after 2013.

Some of the pork spending reportedly goes towards projects that have nothing to do with Hurricane Sandy or the victims, including millions of dollars for tree planting in areas untouched by Sandy and a new roof for the Smithsonian Museum. When an elected representative appropriates government spending for local projects to help his or her district, it is know as “pork barrel” spending.

“Why was this in the emergency bill for Sandy? It doesn’t make any sense.” Only $1 out of every $6 — $9 billion of the $60 billion will be spent in 2013. That means 85 percent doesn’t come until 2014 and beyond. That’s not immediate relief. What this bill is fundamentally is a pork bill.”

Instead, Meyer suggested the Senate should’ve passed a $9 billion “loan” to the states affected by Sandy instead of sneaking in all the wasteful spending before the end of the year.

“It’s disgraceful to load a bill like this that has good motives, that has good intentions that is going to help people, with pork,” he added. “Why are you putting your own projects in it. It’s disgraceful. It’s typical of Washington.”

In an email to TheBlaze, Meyer explained that $1 out of every $20 spent in the Sandy bill will go to “non-relief-related pork.”

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Unfreakin real. Short of revolt, these people are just never going to get it.

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I'm becoming increasingly convinced that a similar element exists within the millions of £'s of 'Foreign Aid' scattered all over the world by the handful by our wonderful, caring government for vital projects like lesbian coffee mornings in Zambia and guinea-pig rearing in Venezuela! The aid can't be reaching the people for whome it was intended, because things are getting no better in the so-called 'Third World' according to theTV ads which seem to blossom at this time of year!

I'll let you complete the old saying "You can always tell when a politician's lying because.............!"

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Gotta agree with the above. My community is doing well. Sometimes its nice to be away from the politics of Washington.

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It's things like this that just whack optimism in the face for anything to ever be done by the government as wholey 'good'.

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... didn't the Smithsonian Roofs get damaged by Sandy's winds ? If so, maybe it makes sense,, for once? Disaster relief??

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Well, it passed the Senate, but apparently it still has to pass the House. So it's not quite through yet.

A couple of the Smithsonian buildings did report damage after Sandy. The one in New York closed for a while, but to my understanding they are back open again. So maybe that particular bit is somewhat justified. But some of the other pork claims being reported seem totally unjustifiable.

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About the Smithsonians... If there was damage or even fully blown off entire roofs that particular cost should only be in the millions, low double digits at the very most. This bill is in the tens of billions, or hundreds and thousands of millions. Even if the museums aren't the best example of waste, they hardly justify any reasonable reasoning for accepting this bill and to top it off its supposed an emergency aid bill yet 85% of it isn't supposed to be spent for two years after the disaster. That doesn't sound like much of an emergency response to me.

Edited by -Mr_Fess-
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And apparently this has been scrapped due to the new folks arriving on the floor today. Even though it passed the Senate in 2012 it has to start over again.

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How I wish the "Line-item veto" was passed.

But I suppose that will never happen... too many congressional self-interests having nothing to do with the original Bill, but "riding" with the Bill, else they won't give a "yea" vote.

How sad.

Edit: Congressman... "I will support the Sandy Relief Bill if there is also a rider to approve a 12.5 million dollar expansion of a road in Alaska"

That's fictitious, but not at all far from the truth of how "riders" work.

Edited by pallidin
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These are the games they play. Sneak a lot of pork and/or unrelated spending into a bill and then scream when the other party votes against it. The same thing happened with the Violence Against Women Bill and any number of others.

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  • 4 weeks later...
 

And apparently this has been scrapped due to the new folks arriving on the floor today. Even though it passed the Senate in 2012 it has to start over again.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/01/28/congress-passes-50-5b-superstorm-sandy-aid-bill/

CONGRESS PASSES $50.5B SUPERSTORM SANDY AID BILL

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As I am not fully clued into politics.. This may sound stupid to ask, but if I don't ask I wont have a clue - What is pork when linked to politics? Is it like a metaphor . like - Bringing home the bacon - money? I am not sure what that all means...?

Edited by Beckys_Mom
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Unfreakin real. Short of revolt, these people are just never going to get it.

Of course it will take a revolution to change this.

Edited by Uncle Sam
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Post Katrina Aid: 60b in aid for est 180b in damage

Post Sandy Aid: 50b est damage 50b (includes reimbursement for insurance companies that have to pay out for losses that policy holders have been paying on)

thats my raw numbers pull for anyone that likes to crunch porkrinds.Source was wiki.

Edited by AsteroidX
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As I am not fully clued into politics.. This may sound stupid to ask, but if I don't ask I wont have a clue - What is pork when linked to politics? Is it like a metaphor . like - Bringing home the bacon - money? I am not sure what that all means...?

To my understanding pork in politics means added fat... As in adding in things that have nothing to do with the bill itself. In the case of a bill like this, relief for the east coast after Sandy, adding in a wad of money for Alaska who saw nothing of the storm would be considered pork. I've heard the term pork used for too much money granted too- like you only needed 2 million and you got 5 million.

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This is about as disgusting as it can get. We have people living in freezing conditions in damaged homes because they cannot find any other rental property or affordable shelter and these clowns pull this crap. They just needed some help...help that did not include fishery studies or Smithsonian roof repairs (well maybe the Smithsonian roof WAS damaged in Sandy, but still).

All this other crap has held up aid for all these weeks..and for good reason if you think about it. That "pork" should never have been included in an emergency relief package. It makes you wonder if they did it on purpose to hold up releasing the aid until they and their cronies could figure out a way to skim off the top of it and "capitalize" on yet another tragedy.

The only thing that should have been included in the bill was what the states and areas asked for. All the other crap should have been on a stand alone bill.

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