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Bank Bailout, Hold the Pork

I normally don't worry too much about anything political. I just can't get excited about something that in inherently corrupt. However, what is going on in Washington today is pissing me off.

It’s not so much the bailout. While I would personally rather the government didn’t spend our hard-earned tax dollars to bail out some fat cats that made some bad decisions, I admit that my knowledge of all things economic is pretty limited, and trust that the “experts” will make the right choice. So, while I don’t want it, I could tolerate the bailout.

What I can’t tolerate is all of the earmarks the shoved into this thing. If this bill was so important, and so urgent, why the hell couldn’t our friends in congress just write a bill that did just what it was set out to do; bail out the banks. Instead it’s filled full of crap such as (and I’m not making this up!):

• $6 million for producers of kids’ wooden arrows. (Unless those arrows are going to be used to punish the fat cats, they have nothing to do with the bank crisis!)
• $192 million to Puerto Rican and Virgin Island rum producers! (I’m thinking that this “crisis” probably has those that drink drinking a lot more rum these days, so this one was truly unnecessary. The rum producers will be making a killing anyway, along with the tobacco industry and the beer industry.)
• Some undisclosed amount to...wool research! (Sounds a little dirty)
• $128 million to auto-racing tracks. (Um...why? As big as NASCAR is these days, I’m thinking they can afford to make their own damned tracks!)
• $33 million to companies operating in American Samoa. (Hey, cool!...no...wait...not so cool, but certainly better than rum or auto racing)
• $10 million to small- to medium-buget film and television producers. (I’m not sure what kind of movies $10 million can produce, but my guess is that we just purchased a stock in the porn industry.)
• $233 million as...get this...tax benefits for fishermen who’s livelihoods suffered as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. (This was clearly a way of buying the vote of Alaska Rep. Don Young. I wish I could get a break for my suffering of 20 years ago! As a starving college student, life really sucked about then. I consumed roughly $192 million worth of rum, too, hmmm...it’s all coming back to haunt me now...I definitely need $233 million for my suffering.)
• $3.8 billion (with a B) for health care provisions that force insurance companies to provide mental-health treatment coverage. (While I see a connection between mental health and this bill, I don’t think this bill is the appropriate place for this.)

Why the hell do we let this happen? How can we prevent it?

For those of you that are supposed to be representing us in Washington, shame on you.

(source: NY Post, via Drudge)