Cowardly Congress Hides Pork Spending Behind the Troops

by Kyle Olson

The original $23 billion in public education stimulus spending has been whittled down to $10 billion and cynically stuffed in a bill to continue funding the war effort in Afghanistan.  While Democrats can hardly be accused of coming up with the idea, it’s a maneuver that we can ill afford right now.

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If the Democrats had the courage to continue racking up debt to give handouts to their political supporters, they’d promote the bill on its own. But they don’t, so it’s stuck in a bill that has nothing to do with education and everything to do with a war effort President Obama once said “We need to win.”

Perhaps he should remind his fellow Democrats of that and not allow them to hold the war in Afghanistan  hostage by demanding pork barrel spending to satisfy campaign financiers.

Worse yet, the president and his administration are allowing members of their own party to strip funding away from one of Obama’s signature initiatives, Race to the Top – a $4 billion fund aimed at incentivizing reforms such as performance pay and charter schools.

So Democrats such as Rep. Dave Obey want to take funds away from reform and give them to maintaining a failing status quo.  Is that where the Democratic Party really stands on sensible and much-needed reform?  Apparently when the going gets tough, they revert back to instinct: whatever Big Labor wants, Big Labor gets.  Don Loos exposed a communication on BigGovernment.com showing the firefighters union president explaining it was Big Labor’s idea to attach public works spending to the war bill.

The economic climate has actually fast-forwarded reform.  Pension funds in Illinois and New York are on the brink of collapse.  Because of huge rate increases, school districts in Michigan are on the verge of paying $20,000 per employee for health insurance – from an entity that is controlled by and kicks back millions of dollars each year to the teachers’ union.

We don’t have funding problems in our public schools, we have spending problems.  The teachers unions want any sort of bailout to ease the need to change the way schools are spending their our money.  Like any ailing company, the time to fix the problems and correct the inefficiencies is when times are tough.  That time is now.  So instead to demanding more money and limping along until the next bailout, we should demand our public schools fix their problems.  But that will require staring the aggressive teachers unions down.

At this point, our public schools are little more than a public works program.  That’s why we’re seeing the call for this stimulus spending, or “bailout,” as AFT president Randi Weingarten said.

We just recently celebrated Independence Day, a time we remember and toast our freedom and Founders.  Americans are increasingly becoming slaves to the state and the demands by public employees for higher taxes to fund their pay and perks is a perfect example.  Will we allow that to continue or will we demand they no longer hide their interests behind the children?

Who can forget this outrageous example of union greed?  At a tax-eaters rally in Springfield, Illinois, one union member wanted to know “where is the money?” and demanded taxpayers “give up the bucks!”  This is what we’ve come to expect, not only from the public education system but “public servants” in general.


Teachers unions hide their demands behind children, and troops serving in harm’s way, because they know the public appetite is not there to continue things they way they currently are.  When will our elected leaders get that message?  They ought to have the courage to allow massive spending bills to be judged on their own merit and let the votes be counted.  If that were to happen, American would be in much better shape financially.


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Posted Jul 7th 2010 at 11:14 am in Big Labor, Education, Federal Spending, Obama | 42 Comments