Ted Cruz: No to Superstorm Sandy Aid, Yes to Aid for Texas Explosion

[merrylander]

This will explain a lot about Texas

http://infinito9.com/landgrants/overview.html

[CarlV]

Originally Posted by finnbow

Perry ought to lobby the Koch Bros. for aid.

+1


Carl

[CarlV]

I was going to start calling Rubio an "Uncle Juan" guess there are two of them now.


Carl

[mini me]

One again, the left can make just about anything political. Advocating a pork-laden Sandy relief bill is A-OK if there's any chance it can make a political opponent look bad.

Nice job!

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by mini me

One again, the left can make just about anything political. Advocating a pork-laden Sandy relief bill is A-OK if there's any chance it can make a political opponent look bad.

Nice job!

And the right, once again shows the considerable depth of their hypocrisy in demanding financial aid for Texas, after fighting to deny financial aid for NY/NJ.

Add this to that the fact that so-called Conservatives, as a basic tenet of their idelogy, aren't supposed to demand help from others in the first place and their BS gets even deeper. Where, oh where is that fabled "Great American self-reliance" now? Shouldn't they be choppping down trees and making their own lumber to rebuild their own town instead of looking for a government handout?

You guys are so full of shit it's amazing.

Dave

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by mini me

One again, the left can make just about anything political. Advocating a pork-laden Sandy relief bill is A-OK if there's any chance it can make a political opponent look bad.

Nice job!

Awwww, poor baby. You don't think turnabout is fair play? It is a tactic employed by your so called conservative Republicant's at every turn of a news cycle. Get over yourself.

[CarlV]

Ah yes, good old GOP and their pork barrels. Lets see, a couple of unfunded wars a couple of unfunded tax cuts favoring the rich we had no money/funding whatsoever, borrowed every penny and still do. Dammit.
And there is more fun during Bush's second term.

The Republican pork barrel

By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | August 4, 2005

AT $286.4 BILLION, the highway bill just passed by Congress is the most expensive public works legislation in US history. In addition to funding the interstate highway system and other federal transportation programs, it sets a new record for pork-barrel spending, earmarking $24 billion for a staggering 6,376 pet projects, spread among virtually every congressional district in the land. The enormous bill -- 1,752 pages long -- wasn't made public until just before it was brought to a vote, and so, as The New York Times noted, ''it is safe to bet that none of the lawmakers, not even the main authors, had read the entire package."
That didn't stop them from voting for it. It passed 412 to 8 in the House, 91 to 4 in the Senate.

Huge as the bill was, it wasn't quite huge enough for Representative Don Young of Alaska, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. ''It's not as big as what he'd like," a committee spokesman said, ''but is still a very good bill and will play a major role in addressing transportation and highway needs."

One wonders what more Young could have wanted. The bill funnels upward of $941 million to 119 earmarked projects in Alaska, including $223 million for a mile-long bridge linking an island with 50 residents to the town of Ketchikan on the mainland. Another $231 million is earmarked for a new bridge in Anchorage, to be named -- this is specified in the legislation -- Don Young's Way. There is $3 million for a film ''about infrastructure that demonstrates advancements in Alaska, the last frontier." The bill even doffs its cap to Young's wife, Lu: The House formally called it ''The Transportation Equity Act -- a Legacy for Users," or TEA-LU.

Christmas didn't come early just for Alaska. Meander through the bill's endless line items and you find a remarkable variety of ''highway" projects, many of which have nothing to do with highways: Horse riding facilities in Virginia ($600,000). A snowmobile trail in Vermont ($5.9 million). Parking for New York's Harlem Hospital ($8 million). A bicycle and pedestrian trail in Tennessee ($532,000). A daycare center and park-and-ride facility in Illinois ($1.25 million). Dust control mitigation for rural Arkansas ($3 million). The National Packard Museum in Ohio ($2.75 million). A historical trolley project in Washington ($200,000). And on and on and on.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/edi...n_pork_barrel/

Carl

[CarlV]

Just for yucks, here is some 2006:

The $23 Billion Slush Fund Remains

President Bush has called on Congress to halve pork-barrel spending from last year's level of $13.3 billion.[1] Using data from Citizens Against Government Waste, that means the President would allow $6.6 billion in pork-barrel spending-a full $23 billion less than the record amount set two years ago. [2]

Interestingly, Congress responded to the President's call by adding $23 billion in new non-defense discretionary spending to the President's request.[3] This additional $23 billion slush fund nearly matches the amount of new spending needed to restore pork-barrel spending to its 2006 peak of $29 billion without any offsets within the programs. Thus, the added spending may have been planned as a slush fund for additional pork-barrel spending.
http://www.heritage.org/research/rep...h-fund-remains

Carl

[CarlV]

Mention GOP pork and it starts raining. I like the first one about Can'tor.

Fiscal Conservatives With A Taste For Pork
Oct 30, 2011 10:00 PM EDT
The dirty dozen.


House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who led the GOP’s debt reduction efforts this summer and bashed stimulus spending, sought money for the stimulus in private letters for projects like high-speed rail.

Freshman Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., a darling of the Tea Party and a has frequently bashed of federal spending on TV, has already written four letters seeking tax dollars for pet projects in his district in his first 10 months on the job.

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, the presidential candidate and libertarian champion, is relentless in calling for the shrinking of government spending while seeking tax dollars for his district from some of the very programs he criticizes.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whose presidential campaign is focused on shrinking the size and burden of government, wrote a letter accepting more than $2 billion from the stimulus for his state.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., the founder of the Tea Party caucus in Congress and now a presidential contender, sought stimulus money for transportation projects in her distict while criticizing the stimulus as wasteful.

Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo, who has panned the stimulus as “bailout baloney,” wrote six letters seeking funding for a carbon capture and smart grid projects in his state funded by Obama’s clean energy program. Enzi’s son is working as a consultant on a part of the related project that benefitted from government money.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton sought a loan guarantee for a Russian-backed Michigan company from the same program he is investigating as part of the Solyndra scandal.

House Speaker John Boehner has derided President Obama’s clean energy agenda while pressuring the administration for a clean energy loan guarantee for a uranium project in his home state of Ohio, among other requests for special treatment for specific companies.

House Reform and Government Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa has questioned the need for the Energy Department’s clean energy efforts while seeking a loan from the program for a home-state electric car company.

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy has fashioned the GOP’s assault on Obama spending policies like the stimulus program while writing two letters seeking stimulus money for pet projects in his home state.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the 2008 presidential candidate who made patrolling for pork a political pastime, wrote a letter in 2009 offering “condition support” for stimulus money for a sky train project at the Phoenix airport.

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, an outspoken critic of the stimulus and a champion of fiscal discipline, wrote letters seeking stimulus money and took credit with his constituents.

All these are source referenced on the webpage here
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newswee...-for-pork.html





Carl

OK, 'nuff.

[d-ray657]

I find comical the suggestion that those on the left are trying to make an action by a U.S. Senator - a politician - look political. I doubt that any senator needs help making what he or she does look political. What part of advocating legislation for your state is not political?

Regards,

D-Ray