Thursday, October 17, 2013

One is Taking Us Hostage, but the Other is Not?

   'Tis true, then, that the bill restoring government and upping the debt ceiling contained pork. I like John McCain's comment: "It shows that there are people in this body who are willing to use any occasion to get an outrageous pork-barrel project done at the cost of millions and millions of dollars."
   During the debate on the government shutdown, President Obama spoke of the tactic of taking hostage, suggesting that was what was being done by fashioning it so that the appropriations couldn't be approved unless the Affordable Care Act was defunded.
   Why is it not the same thing that the appropriations (and raising the debt ceiling) should not be achieved without congressional members also being forced to accept these pork provisions? Many felt they had no choice but to vote to raise the debt ceiling. The had no choice but that their vote should also count as a vote for these pork projects.
   Same form of taking us hostage.
   It is simply wrong, when a nation's health is up against the wall, to opportunistically slip in riders like this. We should be asking to find out who inserted them, and asking them why they did it. Many have suggested Obamacare should be debated on its own merits, separate from the appropriations bill. Why then should these projects not be considered on their own merits?

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/17/politics/new-debt-deal-pork/index.html

No comments:

Post a Comment