Senators Should Derail Mississippi's "Railroad to Nowhere"
by Ronald D. Utt, Ph.D., and Brian M. Riedl

In February, President George W. Bush proposed $92 billion in supplemental spending to fund ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Gulf Coast reconstruction. Disappointing those seeking fiscal responsibility from Congress, the House passed legislation containing these expenditures without offsetting the cost by cutting less important spending elsewhere in the budget. And now the Senate Appropriations Committee has added $14 billion in new spending to its version of the bill--much of it totally unrelated to the war or Gulf Coast reconstruction. Senators attached $700 million to reroute a railroad to facilitate casino development in Mississippi, $4 billion for a farm bailout even as the farm economy booms, $594 million in additional highway spending (on the heels of last year’s $286 billion highway bill), $1.1 billion for the fisheries industry, $3.8 billion to combat avian flu (on the heels of $3.8 billion appropriated last December), an additional $20 million more for poorly managed AmeriCorps program, and other increases. As the bill moves to the floor, senators are threatening to add billions more for milk subsidies, veterans’ health care, and the Army Corps of Engineers. All told, Senators may exceed the President’s spending level by $25 billion. Senators should reject all of these wasteful items, and the President should make clear that he will veto the bill if the Senate is unable to muster a modicum of fiscal responsibility.

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Photo by Chas Geer

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