Letter to the Editor
March 26, 2008
By Administrator
Government spending
Wasteful spending projects plague the federal budget.
When a bill is proposed, a member of congress might earmark the bill with a special spending project for his district such as these: a wine museum in Prosser, a multi-million dollar bridge to a sparsely populated island in Ketchikan, or a member’s defense contract reselling business in Pennsylvania. Rarely do such special and sometimes bizarre spending projects ever reach the scrutiny of debate or budget prioritization.
The bridge project was cancelled, but last year, the bill that hosted the contract reselling business and the Prosser wine museum was passed. I suppose we’ll be touring the new wine museum long before sufficient safety gear ever arrives in Iraq. It’s just not right. Many congressmen seem to figure that the people will never know about all this spending. They even go so far to say that it is a good way to bring money back to the district as though it was right to take that amount away in the first place.
In a bold move this month, our congressman Dave Reichert announced that he will voluntarily refrain from this practice in the 2009 budget year. He deserves our support, commendation, and continuing encouragement for making this decision. He realizes that we need not be a welfare state routinely begging money from the federal coffers. He needs to know you support this action and that you are willing to sacrifice a few frivolous, federally funded projects here for a better America. Please encourage him to lead a strong coalition of his peers in congress that will also make the same pledge.
David Willson
North Bend
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