Thanks to diligent work by John Donnelly of Congressional Quarterly, we now have our nominees for Hypocrites of the Year. They are the 67 liberal House Democrats who, in March, voted to chop the “wasteful” defense budget by 21 percent but, come August, managed to push into that same budget $485 million worth of personal pork projects for constituents. Some offenders you might recognize are Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, Rep. Maxine Waters of California, Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington, Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, and Rep. John Lewis of Georgia. The liberals’ “earmarks” in the 2008 defense appropriations bill would go to fund essentials such as blimps, self-inflating mattresses, paint technology, and so forth. Obnoxious feeding at the federal trough isn’t new, but it’s harder to take from lawmakers who recently proposed a Department of Peace and Nonviolence and are forever whining about overspending on defense.
The $4.26 billion Small Business Innovation Research contracting program widely used by the Air Force went into hibernation as the government shut down Oct. 1, but unless lawmakers strike a deal on reforms, the program could reach an abrupt end.
