Trent Lott's $700 Million Sin City Scheme

posted by John Nichols on 04/20/2006 @ 11:28am

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There is one good thing that comes with "conservative" Republican hegemony: Proof positive that the Grand Old Party is no longer even feigns interest in fiscal responsibility.

Complete Republican control of the White House and Congress has unleashed a pork-barrel spending spree of unprecedented proportions. Deficit spending in on the rise. The national debt is soaring. And the greying pachyderms of the GOP just keeps dipping into the federal treasury to pay for more pet projects.

With the federal government on track to spend $371 billion more than it takes in this year, these "fiscal conservatives" are on a spree that the rest of us will be paying off for decades to come.

And they show no sign of slowing down.

The latest example of how powerful Republicans are porking up the budget comes from Mississippi's Republican delegation, and even by the standards of this Congress it's a pork-barrel pig out.

Mississippi Senators Trent Lott and Thad Cochran, both self-proclaimed "conservatives," are busy securing Congressional approval for a $700 million scheme to relocate a Gulf Coast railroad line. Lott, the Dixiecrat-hailing former Senate Majority Leader who hopes to return to the chamber's leadership after Tennessee's Bill Frist steps down in January, is the prime mover of the budget pen on this one -- and the prancing Prince of Pork really has outdone himself.

The railroad line in question was just repaired at a cost of $250 million but, after that money was spent, Lott and Cochran suddenly figured our that the tracks needed to go elsewhere – so they added their $700 million "earmark" to a $106.5 billion emergency defense spending bill in the Senate.

Earmarks, for those who don't speak Washingtonese, are the legislative tricks that powerful members of Congress use to secure funding for homestate projects without going through standard budget reviews. They are usually attached to major spending bills, in hopes that a few hundred million in additional expense will not be noticed amid the hundreds of billions that are being allocated.

The earmark that Lott and Cochran have come up with is the largest in the history of the Congress. And it may well be the sleaziest.

The railroad line that's slated for removal is in great shape. And no one seriously suggests that moving it a slight distance will make it significantly more secure if a hurricane hits the region – as they regularly do. So why is the federal treasury being raided to pay for the relocation?

The CSX freight line is in the way of a grand plan by wealthy, politically-connected developers in Mississippi to erect new casinos and hotels along the beaches that were just devastated by Hurricane Katrina. They want to move a perfectly good railroad line to open up land so that they can, in the words of the Christian Science Monitor , "turn Mississippi's struggling Gulf Coast into Las Vegas South."

That's right. Lott and Cochran, who when they aren't bragging about their "fiscal conservatism" are busy preaching about the need to restore "moral values" to America, are grabbing $700 million from federal taxpayers to clear the way for a new Sin City.

Some will cry "hypocrisy." A better description is "business as usual" in Republican-run Washington.

Comments (23)

Pachyderms are more like packs-of-worms under Bush leadership.

Posted by oraibi1952 at 04/20/2006 @ 11:43am
Speaking of massive, Pharoahnic construction projects:

Three years after a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, only one major U.S. building project in Iraq is on schedule and within budget: the massive new American embassy compound.

The $592 million facility is being built inside the heavily fortified Green Zone by 900 non-Iraqi foreign workers who are housed nearby and under the supervision of a Kuwaiti contractor, according to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee report. Construction materials have been stockpiled to avoid the dangers and delays on Iraq's roads.

"We are confident the embassy will be completed according to schedule (by June 2007) and on budget," said Justin Higgins, a State Department spokesman.

The same cannot be said for major projects serving Iraqis outside the Green Zone, the Senate report said. Many - including health clinics, water-treatment facilities and electrical plants - have had to be scaled back or in some cases eliminated. . .

http://tinyurl.com/jmgw9

Sin City for Americans, Shit City for Iraqis- the proper relationship between an imperial power and it's subjugated "other people".

Posted by fromredbird at 04/20/2006 @ 12:14pm
Here are some of the good things that are happening in Iraq [tinyurl.com] which the main stream media have failed to report.

Posted by oraibi1952 at 04/20/2006 @ 12:18pm
"good things" should have been 'good things'

Posted by oraibi1952 at 04/20/2006 @ 12:20pm
Too bad Lott and Cochran won't be able to get their friend Jack Abramoff to lobby on behalf of this one....

Posted by nathanhale at 04/20/2006 @ 12:36pm
Great thing about Republican Congressional pork spending is...

A. it means Democrats must run AGAINST it...and stick to that promise if they take the majority (or else...I'm sure (sarcasm) that Mr Nichols and others will accuse THEM of hypocrisy)

B. it sets up a situation in which we have TWO parties vying for the label "fiscal conservative" and the impossibility of enough tax hikes on the "super rich" and corporations to pay for the liberal agenda on spending.

IOW, if Republicans get their act together, or get their butts handed to them this year...they return to their 1994 roots and then we have both parties back to trying to get a balanced budget.

Posted by Mask at 04/20/2006 @ 12:41pm
"good things" should have been 'good things'

Posted by ORAIBI1952 04/20/2006 @ 12:20am

Don't worry, I didn't notice. I can't even spell "pharaonic". Or, is that 'pharaonic'?

Posted by fromredbird at 04/20/2006 @ 2:13pm
"...and the impossibility of enough tax hikes on the "super rich" and corporations to pay for the liberal agenda on spending."

The liberal agenda on spending?

Where have you been?

Posted by drhammer at 04/20/2006 @ 2:48pm
Isn't that special. Late capitalism couldn't care less if a hundred thousand people are displaced by a killer storm, damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead to a southern Las Vegas. No doubt transport will be gambling riverboats with cake walking black folks, just like the good old fucking days.

You know, there are moments when I understand why the French guillotined their elite. I have to say I'd get a great satisfaction out of seeing a few choice heads on sticks.

Posted by Sweetdaddy at 04/20/2006 @ 3:59pm
Lott and Cochran out to listen to Newt Gingrich's recent admonishment to Republicans in Congress. Conservatives will stay home in November if Republicans don't address reduction of Fed spending and serious immigration controls.

Posted by LVLIBERTY1 04/20/2006 @ 11:43am

No you won't. They have you and they know it.

Posted by ILOVEPHYSICS at 04/20/2006 @ 7:24pm
...to pay for the liberal agenda on spending...

Posted by MASK 04/20/2006 @ 12:41am

Can I have some of the dope you're smoking?

Posted by ILOVEPHYSICS at 04/20/2006 @ 7:27pm
It's just a matter of time. Of course, had the right in this country and its corporate buddies not gone out of their way to applaud the slaughter, railroading and imprisonment of all independent political efforts and their leadership, the idea of building an independent political force would not seem so daunting to so many. That will change of course. There's nothing for you right dingalings to feel superior about. Anything you call "independent" or third party politics is usually just another corporate shill, a la Perot or the "libertarians", etc.

When the real shit comes down, you won't even see it happening.

Posted by OyaSon at 04/20/2006 @ 10:50pm
Unlike most Dems, I and many other Republicans are not afraid to send our party a message by either staying home or voting 3rd party...

Democrats have not shown similar conviction when their party waffles.

Posted by LVLIBERTY1 04/20/2006 @ 10:13pm | ignore this person

Wow, ILP may be on to something. They say smoking dope does effect your memory. Leave Liberty seems to have forgotten the 2000 elections when so many progressives voted for Ralph Nader instead of Al Gore.

And this...

Last year we did it to Schwarzennegar over the propositions because he wasn't listening to us on some key concerns we had. The largest group to stay home in the special election in California were Conservative Christians.

...is just a ridiculous re-write of recent history. The Schwarzennegar propositions were a carefully crafted set of measures specifically designed to consolidate the governators power. One measure gave the Governor greatly increased power, another limited the politcal power of unions, a third removed shifted the power to redistrict from the Democrats controlling the state congress to an appointed group of retired judges, and the grabber, the measure that was designed as red-meat to lure out the GOP party faithful so they could pass the rest of the "agenda" required parental notification for abortions for minors. And Leave Liberty is trying to say that the Christain Conservatives stayed home rather than cast a vote over parental notification for abortions for minors?!?! Please. The reality is that ALL of the Schwarzennegar propositions were soundly defeated because Californians recognized the blatant union busting, power grab for exactly what it was.

Posted by Lillian at 04/21/2006 @ 03:06am
The Right will always...ALWAYS find a way to line their pockets with loot ignoring what they spewed on the campaign trail, sometimes days previous, while at the same time admonish the rest of us as immoral, $5.00-a-cup, tree-hugging, baby killers, with a penchant for all things French.

And yes Sweetdaddy, if that clock could be turned back...you'd swear this was the 1920's...or earlier for African-Americans...if conservatives were to have their way.

If I hear one more rightwingnut pine for the "Good 'Ol Days"...

Posted by lefthookjab at 04/21/2006 @ 11:00am
That's "Good Ol' Days...

Posted by lefthookjab at 04/21/2006 @ 11:02am
That's "Good Ol' Days"

Man, the thumbs just ain't workin' today! :)

Posted by lefthookjab at 04/21/2006 @ 11:04am
The stellar fact here is that, for all their indignation about the rights of people to private property, here once more is a clear instance where people of wealth find a way to steal the property of the poor and redistribute it according to their own agenda, in this case, dreams of dixieland casinos and gamblers on riverboats. Fuckers. I hope they all choke on pretzels for real.

Posted by Sweetdaddy at 04/21/2006 @ 12:16pm
Finish church service at 11:00am, in the casinos at 11:30am.

Welcome to Rightworld.

Posted by lefthookjab at 04/21/2006 @ 12:27pm
Isn't it something? Apparently these folks weren't paying enough property taxes or developing their homes according to proper investment patterns, and so deserve to have their things taken away from them. I suppose this is all in compliance with the Supreme Court decision related to proper disposal of property in New London, Connecticut last year.

At any rate, I say if redistribution of what little the poor have works for the economy, redistribution of what the rich have should work even better. Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.

Posted by Sweetdaddy at 04/21/2006 @ 12:41pm
Too good not to share:

I'm the Decider

Posted by leftofcenter at 04/21/2006 @ 6:35pm
Well, well I see even Mr. Nichols has gotten tired, at least momentarily, of the hunt to damage the Bush Administration in any and all ways possible. Today, he chooses to discuss, of all things, fiscal responsibility, which we all know is liberalspeak for 'failing to raise taxes high enough, especially on people that have more than I do, to pay for programs which demonstrate my greater compassion to humanity and my committment to social justice.' Snicker snicker.

One of the drawbacks of kicking the Democrats out of power is that we have, instead, the Republicans in power. Being modern politicians, they regularly use their positions of power to use public money to get themselves re-elected, often on useless and expensive public boondoggles that frequently and not coincidentally, help not only their reelection chances but their own pocketbook. Presumably Mr. Nichols expects us to draw the conclusion that all of this will change if we would only kick out the Republicans, but some of us are a little smarter than that.

Posted by pontificus at 04/22/2006 @ 11:09am
Senior CIA officer fired for leaks to media

April 22, 2006, 11:09 AM (GMT+02:00)

She is unofficially named as senior analyst Mary McCarthy and accused of providing information on covert CIA prisons in E. Europe for which Dana West of the Washington Post won a Pulitzer Prize this week.

It was unclear if Priest or any other reporters who spoke to McCarthy would be brought into an investigation. The fired officer is said to have failed a lie-detector test. CIA director Porter Goss is pressing for aggressive probes about classified information leaks, claiming they have caused severe damage to the agency's missions. He told Congress a federal grand jury should be impaneled to determine the sources of the leaks.

Clinton gutted the usefulness of the CIA by implanting scads of political appointees like Mary McCarthy during his eight year term. McCarthy, who only started working for the Agency in 1984, was patently unqualified for the senior White House position that Clinton appointed her to, and which Bush fired her from shortly after his arrival. This is typical of the fecklessness of the Clinton years (which we had in spades during the Carter years), which left us wide open to the 9/11 attacks. Given the treachery of Clinton political appointees like McCarthy, Joe Wilson, and Valerie Plame, future Republican Administrations would be well-advised to make a clean sweep of such Democratic holdovers lest they, too get stabbed in the back.

It is my sincere hope that both McCarthy and Priest are brought to trial for publishing classified information that demonstrably damaged our national security, and if found guilty, they should spend significant amounts of time in federal ass-pounding prison for it.

Posted by pontificus at 04/22/2006 @ 12:21pm
Ponti

Yes...goodness knows that the Bush-ites are the most fiscally responsible of all, right? What's the running deficit total these days BTW? Dubya hasn't learned the "Just say no" thing...

Posted by leftofcenter at 04/23/2006 @ 11:51am