Looks like Bush's request for $92 billion to continue the war in Iraq has run into a powerful force: Senators worried about reelection. Let the pork run free:
The White House and Senate Republican leaders are gearing up to oppose a $106.5 billion spending bill for the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina this week because some lawmakers have added unrelated aid for farmers and fisheries, highways and ports.
Bush sought $92.2 billion to pay ongoing costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and hurricane relief along the Gulf Coast. The House approved $91.9 billion in March, but the Senate Appropriations Committee added about $14 billion to the measure in early April by inserting numerous items, including money for disasters back to 1999.
Some of these projects might be worthwhile and important. What it highlights, mostly, is that American politics is infantile. Can't get your pet project passed? Sneak it into a military funding bill -- everyone's afraid to vote against that.