Snuffling for Pork in the Trenches

They have a point,

A taxpayer might ask what the pending "emergency" budget bill dedicated to paying for the Iraq war has to do with oil drilling in Mississippi, flood repairs in Utah and a stadium for Washington's new baseball team. The answer is that the expensive war effort provides fast and reliable, if shameful, cover for these goodies and more. Approval of the spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan seemed so certain in the Senate that unscrupulous members of Congress larded it with favored boondoggle projects that would get booted if put to a vote on their own merits.

The Bush administration is the enabler, locked in the shock-and-awe stage of budgeting as it demands an additional $80 billion from a compliant Congress without including these huge expenses in the normal budget process.

Sen Thad Cochran (R - Miss), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, called this bill "a straightforward bill" that "meets the needs of our fighting forces overseas" and "addresses emergency requirements here at home."

Indeed. And where was the D leadership on this?