More Wasteful Pork Spending in Ohio

I sit here just completely amazed. After we were just force fed a pork-filled stimulus bill fraudulently put forward as a way to get unemployed Americans working, the House is sending the Senate a $410 billion pork-filled platter of a spending bill under the guise of keeping the government running.

The group, Taxpayers for Common Sense, is in the process of going through this bill itemizing pork projects and has so far found 8,570 disclosed earmarks worth $7.7 billion. This would be the same omnibus bill that political propagandist Maureen Dowd slammed Obamao on and praised - guess who - John McCain!

Other than House minority leader, John Boehner from West Chester, who has decried this wasteful spending --

"The president campaigned against this type of wasteful spending and frankly, he ought to veto the bill," Boehner said at a Wednesday press luncheon. "If he's really serious about getting rid of wasteful Washington spending, this would be a great example."

...the politicians in OH have their greedy little mitts out. If this money was being spent on running government and putting people back to work I would have no problem with it. But, just like the Ohio Senate proposal for the first round of spending from stimulus funds that Ohio received, this money will be creating little or no jobs for Ohioans and will expend minimal dollars on the billions in infrastructure repairs needed in our state.

Here are some of the requests by elected officials in DC representing this area...

Sen. Sherrod Brown

• $190,000 for the Children's Medical Center of Dayton's pediatric trauma unit and emergency center (also supported by Sen. George Voinovich and Rep. Michael Turner).

• $190,000 to build a nursing school at the Middletown Regional Health System (also supported by Voinovich).

• $466,000 for the Ohio-Israel Agriculture Initiative (also supported by Voinovich).

Sen. George Voinovich

• $95,000 for cataloguing and preservation activities at the Columbus Museum of Art

• $95,000 to help the Cleveland school district with technology upgrades to improve math, language and science proficiency (also supported by Brown).

• $404,000 for facilities and equipment at Mercy Medical Center in Canton (also supported by Rep. Zack Space).

Rep. Marcy Kaptur

• $122,821 for the Greater Toledo Arts Commission to market and develop support for local artists.

• $2.192 million for greenhouse and hydroponic research complex at University of Toledo (also supported by Brown and Voinovich.

Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (deceased)

• $381,000 for facilities and equipment for Hospice of the Western Reserve (also supported by Brown and Voinovich)

• $190,000 for North East Ohio Neighborhood Health Services for facilities and equipment

Rep. Dennis Kucinich

• $95,000 to the Cuyahoga County commissioners for a teacher training initiative (also supported by Voinovich).

• $1.225 million for runway improvements at Cuyahoga County Airport (also supported by Voinovich).

I would love to hear the reasons of how some of the above programs will 'keep' our state running and would not be considered pork. Every single one of these above wish-list projects or programs can be cut as most, if not all, are not necessary spending at this time.

Kucinich's request for runway improvements is great - then we can fly people in to see the new water park on Euclid Ave when another Cleveland Water Dept line bursts. Then Voinovich can offer it as a new form of irrigation for his Ohio-Israel Agriculture Initiative.

Idiots!