Big Spenders:

A couple weeks ago the Senate voted to pass a bill that would bring additional funding to operations in Iraq and reconstruction in Katrina hit areas. If you recall the President threatened to veto the bill if it had passed the $92 billion that he felt was needed. Of course as I had posted on May 5, the Senate decided to make the bill $106 billion.

What was interesting about the Senate version is that the bill didn’t go over $92 billion because they thought President Bush underestimated the cost of Iraq and Katrina. The bill went over because our Senators as usual decided to throw things in there that have nothing to do with it. This is the reason the President has been calling for a line item veto. It’s interesting watching Democrats and even some Republicans attack the President on our fiscal deficits while they do everything in their power to undermine him with spending provisions that don’t reflect the true nature of the bill at hand.

To shed further light on the problem we can look at an amendment by Republican Senator McCain and Senator Ensign. They proposed three amendments to cut spending from the bill that did not relate to Iraq and Katrina. One was amendment No. 3617 that would cut $6 million that was to go to sugarcane growers in Hawaii.

Now what money to sugarcane growers in Hawaii is doing in a bill to fund Iraq and Katrina is beyond me. What’s interesting though is how the amendment was shot down in the Senate as they voted against taking it out of the bill. Though some Republican also voted against McCain and Ensign amendment, pretty much all Democrats voted against it including Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer.

Just something to keep in mind the next time Hillary and Chuck attack the Pres on spending. Also where’s the NY Press on asking Hillary and Chuck why they feel the need to give money to farmers in Hawaii in a bill designed to fund Iraq and Katrina. Hillary should put that much effort into bringing money to New York.