Congress - vs - President Bush...Battle Over Porky Bill

LA Times.com published an article today, stating that Bush vetoed a $606-billion education and health appropriations bill.

Were his reasons justifiable?

• nearly $10 billion over the President's request


• filled with 2,000 earmarks

In essence, it is a bill filled with a bunch of "pork", or a lot of spending for stuff that has nothing to do with what the bill is really about.

Bush did sign, however, the $471 billion Pentagon appropriations bill, which also included some unnecessary items of spending. The difference is in the amount of "pork fat" included in the bill and that the military needs the funds during this time of war.

Is this a usual thing for Congress to try to put through bills with "pork"?

Yes. This is nothing new.

Sometimes the irritants about this matter come when there is a very great and necessary bill being pushed through Congress, and because of the special interest groups getting involved in getting their "pork" put into the bill, the good bills get vetoed.

Additionally, higher spending becomes necessary in order to push through an important bill because of the unnecessary "pork".

This is when I'd like to replace the letter "p" in pork with a "c" and give it to the special interest groups.

The political system at its finest!