The final incarnation of the war funding bill is another example of what I don't mean by "radically moderate."
But to be fair, the pork that made it in this bill is the best kind of pork, things (e.g. Katrina, health care for veterans and impoverished children) that would have had separate bills of their own, if the monster that is this mismanaged war didn't have its hooks in everything.
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I don't see how buying Katrina funding and minimum wage increases with the lives of American soldiers is "good pork."
I don't think the soldiers are getting any less because of those items, though; in fact, weren't they given more funding than Bush asked for?
If piggybacking is the only way Katrina victims get long-promised funding, I don't have too much of a problem with that, all things considered.
But yes, it's definitely a classic SNAFU.
"I don't think the soldiers are getting any less because of those items, though; in fact, weren't they given more funding than Bush asked for?"
You misunderstand me. I'm not saying soldiers are getting less. Rather, Congress is prolonging a war that they were elected to stop, and they're doing it because they were promised pork. More soldiers will die every day that the war continues because this Congress won't stand up for what's right.
Oh, my apologies. I'd forgotten for a moment that you were a Libertarian ;)
In fact, I totally agree with you that this bill is B*S*; that's what I meant by saying that this kind of compromise is antithetical to my concept of moderation.
The Democrats caved and more soldiers will die. That's a travesty beyond words, and I didn't meant to make light of it. But I do think the items that made it in are things that need to be addressed. The Katrina funding isn't new funding, but something that had already been promised and reneged on.
Ideally, this bill wouldn't exist, but I think the reason it does is less to do with the pork than with the Democrats' inability to take even the weakest sort of stand that will make them look like they're not supporting the troops. IMO, they should have kept sending timelines to be vetoed until things came to a head, and make Bush compromise for once. But the Dems aren't famed for their tenacity :(
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