Dear Gutless Fat Cats in Congress....

I've been fairly quiet on the SURRENDER bill passed in Washington over the past couple of weeks. I did write a screaming post about it last week, but one of the things included in the bill that I didn't write about is the pork they included.

Army mom Cathy Floyd addresses this quite nicely:
They sweetened their little bill with ridiculous pork projects, paid for by us, and designed to bribe a few congressmen who were on the fence, trying to decide if they should go with what they know is right for the country and for our servicemen or if they should play politics in order toimprove their chances of holding on to their dream jobs.

A little money thrown in to the decision-making process usually helps to clear up all the confusion.

They sicken me.

I'm tired of them playing their games.

Indiana Representative Mike Pence had this to say about the pork included in the war funding bill: "Spinach, shrimp, peanuts, and shellfish? That's not a war funding bill, that's the salad bar at Denny's." The bill, officially called the "US Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health, and Iraq Accountability Act" includes the following unrelated spending measures:
-$25 million to spinach growers to offset 2006 losses due to to E. Coli scare

-$120 million to shrimp farmers due to Hurricane Katrina damage, plus another 45 million to offset losses due to disease last year

-$74 million to restore federal support for peanut storage

-$200 million to dairy farmers

-$2 BILLION in foreign aid, including $500 million to Lebanon and Eastern Europe

Even Texas Republican Representative Ron Paul, who has always been opposed to the war in Iraq, said "I could not support what appeared to be micro-management of the war in this bill. There is a distinction between the legitimate oversight role of Congress and attempts to meddle in the details of how the war is to be fought. The withdrawal and readiness benchmarks in this bill are in my view inappropriate."

Mrs. Floyd, I hope you know you've got a ton of people out here who fully support you AND your sons. It sickens me to think we've got a government full of "gutless fat cats" who are giving up on Iraq and our military. No one ever said that war was easy or pretty, or for the weak and cowardly, but apparently our nation is being led by just that sort of politician. They've passed a larded-up war funding bill which includes farm subsidies for no other reason than to fast-track spending that would otherwise debated and delayed- and for good reason.

I'm tired of playing their games too, Mrs. Floyd. I just wonder when the rest of America will wake up and realize that war is not Yahtzee- you can't roll the dice and expect to win when the right numbers come up.

(h/t to Leta for Mrs. Floyd's letter)