Stuffed Pork

This is not an entry in a recipe contest. In fact you may not want to read it immediately after a meal. No, the stuffed pork I’m refering to here is Senator Mary Landrieu’s shopping list for Katrina relief money. Veronique de Rugy, a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute examined the 440 page legislation as reported by Washington Times reporter Wesley Pruden. (h/t: GOP Bloggers). Mr. Pruden prefaced the analysis this way:

Sen. Mary Landrieu, the senior senator from Louisiana who threatened on national television to punch out the president if he didn’t straighten up and come across, has presented the mother of all shopping lists. If Mzz Landrieu gets half of what she’s asking for, Santa Claus should move to Bourbon Street to cut down on his Christmas commute.

Mzz Landrieu wants billions and baubles, and no strings. “Louisiana will be rebuilt by Louisianans,” she says proudly. “New Orleans will be rebuilt by New Orleans. And southern Louisiana will be rebuilt under the leadership of the people who call it home.”

That’s the way it should be, within reasonable limits, but since the rest of us are asked to shut up and just send the money we’re entitled to examine the Christmas list.

Here is a partial listing of the ingredients Miss de Rugy found in this recipe. I’ll just highlight a few of the more interesting ones.

$35 million for the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board; $8 million for direct financial assistance to alligator farmers; $12 million for the restoration of wildlife management areas; $25 million to complete the Sugarcane Research Laboratory; $120 million for a laboratory, facilities and equipment at the Southern Regional Research Center; $28 million for the restoration and rehabilitation of trees; $34 million to support the research and education activities of the Agriculture Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service; $19 million for the acquisition of first-responder mobile communications and to provide public wireless Internet access in a 100-block area of downtown New Orleans; $250 million for assistance to firefighters; $100 million for “early intervention, prevention, and disorder treatment” for children up to 5 years old; another $100 million for early intervention, prevention, and disorder treatment for children older than that; $100 million for assessment, early intervention, prevention, and treatment for “substance abuse” (and we’re not talking red beans and rice, delicious substances though those are); $600 million for early childhood education; $20 million for the establishment of development plans for development districts in the state; $160 million to implement the 2005 recommendations of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission related to the federal city development in Algiers, La.; $7 billion for rebuilding evacuation and energy supply routes (that’s in addition to $5 billion for expansion of road and transit capacity); $150 million for small business loans and tax breaks, and another $50 billion in block grants (this is in case someone forgot to ask for something).

Speaking of incidentals, Sen. Landrieu and her legislation asks for reimbursement of lost business revenue, which is exceedingly nice work if you can get it. This includes $27 million for lost timber revenues from the Pearl River Wildlife Management Area, $250,000 for “lost” milk of dairy farmers, $11 million for cattle farmers, $5 million for “dairy spoilage” (this may be spilt milk), another $5 million for “unspecified livestock-related losses.”

Uh, wow? The American people have been extremely giving of their money and other resources. No one is trying to avoid helping the areas damaged and destroyed by Katrina to rebuild. But to attempt to take advantage of the US taxpayers in this way is beyond belief. Mr. Pruden suggests that, “The speed with which the senator and her list-makers came up with the wish list suggests that someone has been picking numbers out of the air, with the expectation that nobody is looking closely.” We need to look closely. Mark Noonan (GOP Bloggers) has this suggestion.

We have to make certain that this gets around the blogosphere and eventually into the MSM. This is pork – pork designed to slip through because it will be described as aid for the victims of Katrina. Unless we get the word out there, then we’ll be spending $8 million on alligator farmers because we think we’re spending money to help people who lost their homes…

Read his post to find out how to contact your representatives.

Linked with the OTB Beltway Traffic Jam and Supper at Basil’s Blog

Tweet