Senate's Kosovo Budget Bill

a despicable pork-barrel bonanza
by Steve Dasbach ,Libertarian

Multiple Choice Quiz question: 

Which of the following items are included in the U.S. Senate's "emergency spending legislation," designed to pay for the U.S.' illegal invasion of Yugoslavia? 

1. Up to $1 billion (that's with a "B") in loan guarantees for steel companies, and another $500 million in loans for oil and gas corporations.
 
2. Foreign aid for hurricane victims in Latin America. Where is money for Americans in Oklahoma? The Congress throws Our Money away in Latin America and loans money (sticks-it-to) Americans! Our Money should never even go to Washington in the first place.
 
3. A measure to remove a certain fish from the Endangered Species list.
 
4. A plan to let states spend $246 billion in tobacco funds on programs totally unrelated to smoking. Funds obtained from Tobacco lawsuits were never earmarked to cover health expenses. WE know how it works. Tell tobacco opponents a lie, then spend the results of sanctioned theft on anything they want. Tobacco companies just laid down and capitulated. The decision to use tobacco products is entirely personal.
 
5. All of the above.
 

"If you guessed 'all of the above,' you're correct," said Steve Dasbach, national director of the Libertarian Party. "Under the guise (LIE) of helping the military, opportunistic politicians are helping themselves by funneling our money to their favorite special interest groups. As this bill proves, WAR isn't just another government program to Senate Republicans and Democrats -- it's just another pork-barrel government program." 

The everything-but-the-kitchen-sink spending was grafted onto a mammoth appropriations bill (money splurge bill) which was supposed to pay for continued U.S.-led air strikes on Yugoslavia. The final details of the bill are currently being hashed out by a House/Senate conference committee, before being sent to the White House (America's bordello and expensive hotel today). 

Among the items "piled" (technical Congress spending term) onto the Senate bill: 

• Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV, the King Pork Purloiner) is promoting $1 billion in guaranteed loans that will benefit just three steel companies in the USA -- one of which happens to be the Weirton Steel Company in West Virginia.
 
• Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), chairman of the Senate Budget (Theft Committee) Committee, is trying to funnel (thieve) $500 million to oil and gas interests in the Southwest.
 
• Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) is currying favor (buying support) with the fishing interests in his state by trying to remove the Alabama sturgeon from the Endangered Species list.
 
• Senators Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Tom Harkin (D-IA, Clinton's twin brother) are pushing (greasing palms) for $4.3 billion for Midwestern farmers in the form of crop subsidies and loan guarantees.
 
• Mr. Clinton is demanding up to $1 billion in aid for Central American victims of Hurricane Mitch, and another $100 million in foreign aid for Jordan, while the victims of Hurricane NATO (Kosovars) get tents, MREs or protein-dung soup, latrines, and sponge baths.

And, finally, "To show that partisanship really does stop at the water's edge during wartime, Democrats and Republicans are working overtime to use the illegal WAR in Yugoslavia to promote another bipartisan war: The War on Tobacco," said Dasbach. 

Evidence: 

• Senators Bob Graham (D-FL) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX, another "passionate conservative") are trying to ensure that states can spend the $246 billion extorted from tobacco companies last fall on whatever they want -- instead of on anti-smoking campaigns for young people, as originally promised. If I were CEO of a tobacco company, I would dedicate the companies entire capital resources to fighting the government in every legal way to prevent government extortion. The choice to smoke or chew is personal...the Smoker causes his/her own disease because the Smoker chose to smoke, and Joe Camel didn't use a "smoke-blower" to fill his/her lungs with smoke.

While the Clinton's diversionary WAR seizes Americans' attention, the Congress steals more money from our pocket --- a 100 year old tactic. While Americans are busy during the day earning enough money to pay their April 15th theft charge, Congress "back-stabs" us with another scam that "greases the palms" of their supporters. These "representatives" are scavengers living off the almost dead carcass of the American Public. 65% of our money stays in Washington. Our money pays for bureaucrats and lawyers who tighten the noose around our financial necks everyday. 

WE had better get busy voting for Libertarians who will reduce government to one-fourth its current size, and the majority of Americans will gain more instead of lose after our money is left in our pockets. 

"Whether or not you support the illegal invasion (WAR) in Yugoslavia -- and Libertarians most certainly do not -- the way that politicians are rushing to squeeze pork-spending projects into this appropriations bill isn't just pathetic, it's contemptible," said Dasbach.