The Briefing Room
General Category => Politics/Government => Topic started by: mystery-ak on October 16, 2013, 11:46:52 pm
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http://wfpl.org/post/mcconnell-reid-deal-includes-2-billion-earmark-kentucky-project (http://wfpl.org/post/mcconnell-reid-deal-includes-2-billion-earmark-kentucky-project)
McConnell-Reid Deal Includes $2 Billion Earmark for Kentucky Project
By Phillip M. Bailey
A proposal to end the government shutdown and avoid default orchestrated by Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Leader Harry Reid includes a $2 billion earmark for a Kentucky project.
Language in a draft of the McConnell-Reid deal (see page 13, section 123) provided to WFPL News shows a provision that increases funding for the massive Olmsted Dam Lock in Louisville from $775 million to nearly $2. 9 billion.
The dam is considered an important project for the state and region in regards to water traffic along the Ohio River.
As The Courier-Journal's James Bruggers reported in 2011, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said they needed about $2.1 billion for the locks due to "stop and go funding."
Asked about the additional funding in the proposal, McConnell spokesman Robert Steurer directed all questions to lawmakers who worked on the bill directly.
"Senators (Diane) Feinstein and (Lamar) Alexander, the chair and ranking member of the energy and water subcommittee, worked on the issue and can help you," he says.
Since 2009, McConnell has been an outspoken supporter of the project, and has been working on getting its funding for some time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1wttHhtyAc (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1wttHhtyAc)
Still, conservative critics of the proposal argue it is nothing more than a "kickback" for McConnell in an age where Tea Parties have eschewed earmarks.
The Olmsted Dam sees nearly 90 billion tons of materials such as coal, petroleum and other goods move through that stretch of the Ohio River annually.
UPDATE 7:30 p.m.:
A statement from Sen. Alexander's office to BuzzFeed says the language was added to prevent funding from being canceled.
"According to the Army Corps of Engineers, 160 million taxpayer dollars will be wasted because of canceled contracts if this language is not included. Sen. [Diane] Feinstein and I, as chairman and ranking member of the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, requested this provision. It has already been approved this year by the House and Senate."
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...imagine that...I am shocked...shocked I tell ya!
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Bastards.....both of them...... AND they don't have to be in Obamacare,
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TERM LIMITS!!!!!!
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TERM LIMITS!!!!!!
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:
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What's more, Cruz KNEW they held all the cards, but, hey, he raised $225K in the last two weeks.
Which is what this was all about for him.
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What's more, Cruz KNEW they held all the cards, but, hey, he raised $225K in the last two weeks.
Which is what this was all about for him.
Great point :smokin:
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Uh, this project was already approved by both the House and the Senate in previous appropriations, and this money needed to be approved lest contracts run out and the entire project be stopped.
And look at who the House Appropriations Chairman is? Hal Rogers of Kentucky.
And the Earmark was added by Diane Feinstein and Lamar Alexander.
But, all the McConnell haters have their panties bunched up over this.
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McConnell primary foe: Deal ‘rotten’
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is taking heat from Tea Party groups and his primary challenger for brokering a deal to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling.
Matt Bevin, who is running against McConnell in the GOP primary in Kentucky, slammed him for "selling out conservatives."
"When the stakes are highest, Mitch McConnell can always be counted on to sell out conservatives," he said in a statement.
"McConnell just negotiated the GOP surrender to [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid [D-Nev.], leading the charge to give President Obama a blank check and lifting the debt ceiling once again without any spending reforms. Harry Reid has even praised McConnell for his 'cooperation,' " Bevin said.
Bevin said McConnell struck a "rotten" deal that is a "slap in the face to ordinary Kentuckians," and blasted it for not including changes to ObamaCare.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/328897-mcconnell-getting-flak-from-right-left-for-brokering-senate-deal
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[urlhttp://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/political-fix/illinois-dam-costing-billions-more-than-expected-as-delays-mount/article_3eb26385-6083-5004-8d74-75a174b7ba0b.html]As it turns out, the Olmsted Locks and Dam project is overdue and way over budget. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:[/url]
A project that should have been completed years ago has quadrupled in cost because of management failures for which the Corps of Engineers has yet to be held accountable.
And the price tag keeps rising.
In 1988, Congress authorized spending $775 million to replace two 1920s-era Ohio River dams 17 miles from the Mississippi River, at the busiest inland shipping hub in America.
A quarter-century later, the projected cost has ballooned to $3.1 billion.
Moreover, the Olmsted project is barely half done. The latest completion dates: 2020 for the dam and 2024 for the entire project.
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If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. Same old crap we know and never loved about pressure politics in Washington. “What’s in it for me?” We got sold down the river for $3 billion.
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Some of this money technically goes to Ohio as the project benefits that state too.
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If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. Same old crap we know and never loved about pressure politics in Washington. “What’s in it for me?” We got sold down the river for $3 billion.
So you just want the project shut down?
Let's just shut off all money to every infrastructure project in the country so the Tea Partiers can feel good.
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We got sold down the river for $3 billion.
On the positive side we can be proud McConnell is sure one darned expensive whore.
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We got sold down the river for $3 billion.
On the positive side we can be proud McConnell is sure one darned expensive whore.
An expensive whore is still just a whore.
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Interesting.
So you just want the project shut down?
Let's just shut off all money to every infrastructure project in the country so the Tea Partiers can feel good.
Care to show me where she said either of those things.
No, I guess he won't. Partly because he cannot and partly because I he's afraid of me and I think he has me on ignore.
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Sounds a bit like the Kentucky version of the Big Dig.
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So you just want the project shut down?
Let's just shut off all money to every infrastructure project in the country so the Tea Partiers can feel good.
No, let's shut off all money to infrastructure projects because the Federal government has no business funding infrastructure projects.
Read the goddamned Constitution. See anything about it being okay for Congress to fund dam projects in Kentucky subsidized by taxpayers in the other states?
No, you don't. And don't give me the "General Welfare" clause bullshit. The only benefit goes to Mitch McConnell and the companies in his back pocket.
Our beloved, wonderful, all-knowing, all-bountiful Federal government is $17 trillion in debt and about to add more to a mountain of unsustainable spending and debt whose interest will be paid be people yet unborn who can't vote.
Revolution is brewing and this is why.
Kick the bastards out.
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No, let's shut off all money to infrastructure projects because the Federal government has no business funding infrastructure projects.
Read the goddamned Constitution. See anything about it being okay for Congress to fund dam projects in Kentucky subsidized by taxpayers in the other states?
No, you don't. And don't give me the "General Welfare" clause bullshit. The only benefit goes to Mitch McConnell and the companies in his back pocket.
Our beloved, wonderful, all-knowing, all-bountiful Federal government is $17 trillion in debt and about to add more to a mountain of unsustainable spending and debt whose interest will be paid be people yet unborn who can't vote.
Revolution is brewing and this is why.
Kick the bastards out.
Wow. So I guess you've been pissed all your life that Eisenhower, a Republican, authorized the Interstate Highway System.
Revolution is brewing because we have good highways?
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Wow. So I guess you've been pissed all your life that Eisenhower, a Republican, authorized the Interstate Highway System.
Revolution is brewing because we have good highways?
Revolution is brewing because the Strawman has no brain. Jinglebob much?
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Uh, this project was already approved by both the House and the Senate in previous appropriations, and this money needed to be approved lest contracts run out and the entire project be stopped.
Uh, the additional $2b didn't have to be attached to this bill. It was funded for 'X' amount, and just increased by 300% as a rider. It's cowardice, and defending it means that you're a part of the problem. 8888crybaby
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Uh, the additional $2b didn't have to be attached to this bill. It's cowardice, and defending it means that you're a part of the problem. 8888crybaby
LOL!!! Whether it had to be attached to this bill or not, it would have been attached to some bill.
Projects like this don't die in mid-stream, not when they're favored by both parties.
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Revolution is brewing because the Strawman has no brain. Jinglebob much?
Snort much?
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Wow. So I guess you've been pissed all your life that Eisenhower, a Republican, authorized the Interstate Highway System.
Revolution is brewing because we have good highways?
Please, for the love of Pete. There is absolutely no legal equivalence between an interstate commerce system, built by private contractors across all contiguous states, for the benefit of all citizens... and a pork barrel project for the benefit of a single U.S. Senator and a handful of his contributors. The Constitution has a Commerce clause, not a Kentucky dam clause.
Have you been studying up on Obama's straw man arguments? You should: he's really good at promoting logical fallacies.
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Please, for the love of Pete. There is absolutely no legal equivalence between an interstate commerce system, built by private contractors across all contiguous states, for the benefit of all citizens... and a pork barrel project for the benefit of a single U.S. Senator and a handful of his contributors. The Constitution has a Commerce clause, not a Kentucky dam clause.
Have you been studying up on Obama's straw man arguments? You should: he's really good at promoting logical fallacies.
This project affects four states. McConnell's name wasn't even on this appropriation.
You're smart, but you jump offside several times a day.
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In the mean time we wonder why this country is 90 trillion in debt and the debt is growing. If I was a trial lawyer Sinkspur would be my evidence before the jury.
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In the mean time we wonder why this country is 90 trillion in debt and the debt is growing. If I was a trial lawyer Sinkspur would be my evidence before the jury.
If you were a trial lawyer, you'd starve to death.
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This project affects four states. McConnell's name wasn't even on this appropriation.
You're smart, but you jump offside several times a day.
One state, four states: what's the difference? It isn't a proper or Constitutional use of my tax dollars, especially when we are broke and buying our own debt - oh, that will end well. If you don't think McConnell didn't get money or favors for this little deal, you are painfully naive.
And I'm not "offside", I'm on the side of the taxpayer who is getting robbed by criminals who pretend to be representing us. It's our damn money, not theirs.
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One state, four states: what's the difference? It isn't a proper or Constitutional use of my tax dollars, especially when we are broke and buying our own debt - oh, that will end well. If you don't think McConnell didn't get money or favors for this little deal, you are painfully naive.
And I'm not "offside", I'm on the side of the taxpayer who is getting robbed by criminals who pretend to be representing us. It's our damn money, not theirs.
Every time we turn around they are robbing from all of us to pay off their cronies. A few weeks ago Sink was crowing about how little people were going to have to pay for Obamacare - because they get SUBSIDIES. As if those subsidies just materialize out of thin air and not our of our pockets.
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One state, four states: what's the difference? It isn't a proper or Constitutional use of my tax dollars, especially when we are broke and buying our own debt - oh, that will end well. If you don't think McConnell didn't get money or favors for this little deal, you are painfully naive.
And I'm not "offside", I'm on the side of the taxpayer who is getting robbed by criminals who pretend to be representing us. It's our damn money, not theirs.
So sue.
I'll bet those Tennesseans, and Ohioans, and Kentuckians who have jobs on this project don't think this is a worthless project. Nor do any of the representatives or Senators from those states.
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Every time we turn around they are robbing from all of us to pay off their cronies. A few weeks ago Sink was crowing about how little people were going to have to pay for Obamacare - because they get SUBSIDIES. As if those subsidies just materialize out of thin air and not our of our pockets.
You lie again.
I NEVER said that people were going to have pay "little" for Obamacare. I have posted articles and made comments that contradict what you're saying.
Stop lying about what I say, Rap. Please.
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LOL!!! Whether it had to be attached to this bill or not, it would have been attached to some bill.
Projects like this don't die in mid-stream, not when they're favored by both parties.
Of course it would have, but attaching it to THIS bill is nothing more than a payoff. Sorry if you can't understand this ... it's the way DC has worked for, well, forever.
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Of course it would have, but attaching it to THIS bill is nothing more than a payoff. Sorry if you can't understand this ... it's the way DC has worked for, well, forever.
I understand it, you understand it.
If it's worked that way forever, why do you think it would be any different this time?
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So sue.
...and, that's where this guy just lost his argument.
Attaching this to the bill opens up McConnell to criticism. I happened to like the guy before this obvious kickback.
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Sinkspur, I agree with you more often than not, because I fancy myself a realist.
That said, defending this obvious quid pro quo doesn't do anybody on the right any good. It happened, now it's time to regroup and look toward the 2014 mid-terms.
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So sue.
I'll bet those Tennesseans, and Ohioans, and Kentuckians who have jobs on this project don't think this is a worthless project. Nor do any of the representatives or Senators from those states.
Yes, that's Congress' function: to fund jobs projects paid for by the citizens of other states. I can't imagine why America is circling the bowl.
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Sinkspur, I agree with you more often than not, because I fancy myself a realist.
That said, defending this obvious quid pro quo doesn't do anybody on the right any good. It happened, now it's time to regroup and look toward the 2014 mid-terms.
McConnell's name was not on the appropriation request. Lamar Alexander (whose state also benefits from this dam) sponsored it.
If you want to be pissed at somebody, be pissed at him.
I get it that everybody here hates Mitch McConnell. I don't.