Some porkers still looking for earmarks
Image via WikipediaGone for now are the likes of the taxpayer-financed teapot museum, or studies on the mating habits of crabs.You know there are a lot of things I would enjoy having, but I don't spend the money I don't have. Those who think earmarks are free money just don't comprehend he US debt crisis. It is not like they don't still have a shot at getting their pork. Congress can still put the items in the appropriation bills that go through the committee review process. Admittedly, they should have a tough time getting them through the House appropriation committee where Paul Ryan is presiding over the cuts.
But also shelved are a project to help consolidate information about arrests in Brazos County, Tex., and staffing for two new shelters for abused women and children in Salt Lake City. A rural county in Wisconsin will not be able to upgrade its communication system, and a road in Kentucky will not be widened next year.
Across the country, local governments, nonprofit groups and scores of farmers, to name but a few, are waking up to the fact that when Congress stamped out earmarks last week, it was talking about their projects, too.
Tensions are particularly acute in districts where new conservative lawmakers, many of whom criticized throughout their campaigns the practice of quietly inserting earmarks into spending bills, are coming face to face with local governments and interest groups who were counting on federal dollars to help shore up their own collapsing budgets.
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Brazos County, which is not too far from me will have to find a way to finance the project out of their own resources. Perhaps they will even find a way to do it for less money when they are using local funds. Some projects will have to wait.
Right now< I think it would be nice to have a paved driveway instead of the gravel one I now have. I have never given a thought to having someone else pay for the work and I will just wait until it fits in my current priorities.
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