Storm Splurge

Deroy Murdock, writing in National Review, pulls no punches in expressing his disappointment with the free-spending Republicans who are running the current Congress:

Not long ago, the Republican Congress at least pretended to be serious about keeping federal spending plausibly sane. While they hurled massive expenditures in every direction, at least their rhetoric honored the grassroots-Republican expectation that they would respect taxpayers' money.

But, save for a band of fiscally responsible backbenchers (about whom more soon), profligate congressional Republicans have surrendered on this front. Their leaders no longer try to restrain spending, nor do they even say the right things about stewarding tax dollars.

As the House of Representatives approved $62.3 billion in universally applauded assistance to Hurricane Katrina's survivors, fiscal conservatives attempted to reduce other spending. House leaders rebuffed their amendment.

"My answer to those who want to offset the spending is sure, bring the offsets," House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R., Tex.) told reporters September 13. "But nobody has been able to come up with any yet." Asked if Washington operated at top efficiency, DeLay made free-market jaws drop when he said: "Yes, after 11 years of Republican majority, we've pared it down pretty good."

That's right. And Elvis died of anorexia.

Murdock outlines some of the massive pork spending going on in the latest earmark riddled highway bill, but nothing in that bill is as egregious as Republican Don Young's Alaskan "Bridge to Nowhere":

Consider the disgraceful $223 million bridge between Ketchikan, Alaska, and Gravina Island — Population: 50. This equals $4.46 million per capita. Obscene? This is fiscal pornography. $223 million very generously could grant 892 storm-swept families $250,000 to rebuild or relocate.

Asked to respond to critics who have urged him to reallocate this notorious bridge's budget to Katrina's victims, GOP Congressman Don Young, chairman of the 75-member House Transportation Committee, said: "They can kiss my ear!" He added: "That is the dumbest thing I ever heard." He also explained that Louisiana already received substantial money in the highway bill and that he helped generate $500,000 in Katrina relief at "the Seafood Invitational," a Roslyn, Washington golf tournament. "I raised enough money to give back to them voluntarily," Young said, "and that's it!"

Fiscal conservatives are getting very uneasy with the current crop of Republican congressmen, and if the GOP is unable to return to its small government roots, the rank-and-file GOP voters will look elsewhere for leadership, even if it means turning Republicans out of office.