Dear Editor: Budgets and Pork

Dear Editor,

One of the jobs the House side of Congress has is to plan a budget for the government to operate the following year. They are required to have this budget presented for a vote by the end of September, thirty days before the end of the fiscal year on October 31.

Unfortunately, over the decades, those in charge have figured out that they can put it off until after the fiscal year ends and force a vote on a budget package that has little to do with the budget of the United States. This year is no different. Except for this year, the assault on the taxpayer dollar has hit new heights.

The budget presented by the House and passed was nearly three months late, presented at 1:30 in the morning; even though it was a total of 6,825 pages, our representatives were expected to vote on it two days later. That is 4,155 pages of budget text and 2,670 pages of explanatory material to instruct agencies on how to carry out the spending. And it’s large, at more than $1.7 trillion dollars.

As if that is not bad enough, it also includes thousands of “earmarks” for Senators and Representatives alike. Republican, Independent, and Democrat alike. Earmarks (also known as pork) are defined as spending provisions elected officials to attach to bills that are likely to be passed and signed into law.

Earmarks were removed by Republicans a few years back. When Biden walked into the White House, the Democrats quietly put them back on the floor for a vote to reinstate them. That easily passed with help from all sides.

Keep in mind that as I am typing this, the debt clock is at $31,462,964,792,976.(Wednesday at 5:20 PM,

December 28, 2022). That is $31 trillion dollars. We, the taxpayers, owe foreign countries over $7 trillion dollars. We, the taxpayers, owe China and Japan over $1 trillion dollars each. Our representatives are spending our money at a rate of 135% of our income. If we had to pay the debt off tomorrow, every citizen of the United States would have to cough up $72,619. Hope your kid has some bucks shoved under the crib mattress as this debt does not discriminate by age.

I urge you to remember this as I go on. Let’s look at some budget items first:

1) The IRS got a budget decrease of $275 million. The IRS only gets $12.3 billion.

2) $335 million to prepare for an influenza pandemic, including the use of surveillance tools.

3) $65 million to help "Pacific salmon" populations (and those in charge of handling the money, I assume)

4) $3 million for “bee-friendly highways” and another $5 million for the salmon

5) $575 million for “family planning” in areas where population growth “threatens biodiversity.” Somebody needs to explain this one to me. And how is abortion considered family planning?

6) $65 million for a federal building named for Nancy Pelosi.

7) $3.6 million for the “Michelle Obama Trail”

8) $477k for “anti-racist” training

9) $3 million for an LGBTQ+ museum in NYC

10) $1.2 million in “services for DACA recipients”

11) $524.4 million for the National Institute of Health to fight “structural racism”

12) $7.5 million to better understand “domestic radicalization”

13) $1 million for gun violence research

14) $200 million for gender programs in Pakistan and for Gender Equity

15) A 15% increase in the vaccine injury fund (...but it’s safe)

16) $11.33 billion for the FBI

17) $1.75 billion for the ATF

18) $2.63 billion for US attorneys (all significant increases over the previous year)

19) $70 million for minority business development, an increase of $15 million from the fiscal year 2022

20) And this one should make you make a phone call: $410 billion dollars for enhanced border security in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Oman.

Meanwhile, here in the United States, the Omnibus bill carves out $1,563,143,000 for the Mexico/U.S. border with specific directions that it is not to be used for securing the border in any way.

There are $45 billion dollars for the war in Ukraine. Personally, I think the war is important, but what is it doing in the U.S. budget bill?

And the earmarks. Oh my. Over 7500 earmarks for pet projects of Congress members.

Republicans ran on being the watchdog of excessive spending (they always do, but aren’t). Yet nine House Republicans and eighteen Senate Republicans voted for this debt spree. And the earmarks explain that. Top winners in the pork contest include Senator Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, at $656 million; Jim Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, at $511 million; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, at $490 million; Mazie Hirono, D-Alaska, at $422 million; Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, at $350 million. And on it goes.

The top ten in earmark spending is made up of seven Republicans, two Democrats, and one Independent. To top it off, there is a provision to rename the FBI facilities at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama as the “Richard Shelby Center for Innovation and Advanced Training.”

With a total of 6,825 pages, there is no way to get all the waste on here. This can be changed. But YOU have to take the time to contact our representatives. It really is easy and does not require much time. But until people demand change, it won’t happen.

Side note to Don Lepinsky: Learn the new meaning of “woke.”

Jim Buterbaugh

Whitehall, Montana