Dems cut pork
Why can't Kentucky get Democrats like this?
It was just a spud for starters: a $200,000 spending earmark Congress added in 1982 for the breeding of Eastern Russets. A quarter century and $28 million later, special research grants for potatoes top $1.4 million annually with no end in sight -- until now.Kentucky is still well-acquainted with pork. Will even one of the Democrats running for Governor please promise to spend no more than $15 billion in the next two-year budget cycle?As part of a giant spending bill to be filed in Congress tonight, Democrats will take a spade to more than $186 million in such research grants, which have quadrupled in the Agriculture Department since the 1980s. Hardest hit are the nation's 58 land-grant colleges, which have become dependent on the funds and now are caught in the backlash against members of Congress "earmarking" money for particular causes or recipients.
Filling about 150 pages, the bill will govern spending for the last eight months of fiscal 2007 -- ending Sept. 30 -- and coming just a week before President Bush submits his budget request for fiscal 2008, its proposed cuts underscore the changed landscape after November's elections. The new Democratic majority has declared a moratorium on earmarks, while Congress establishes rules to deal with past abuses in the appropriations process. But only now will Washington get a glimpse of the full impact on spending and the balance of power between Congress and the White House.
