DOD to Continue to Sponsor NASCAR
by Paul Deaton
Following the debate in the US House of Representatives over the Fiscal Year 2011 Continuing Resolution was something like raking sand in the desert. A tedious task at the end of which, the desert looks little different from when we started. While the New Republican majority was quick to assert that we can't afford the big spending ways of the federal government, in a 281-141 vote, they declined to prohibit the Department of Defense from sponsoring NASCAR. Regrettably Congressmen Dave Loebsack (D-IA) and Leonard Boswell (D-IA) voted to continue NASCAR sponsorship, and only Bruce Braley (D-IA) of Iowa's delegation agreed that DOD sponsorship of NASCAR was something that could be cut during a recession. Seriously?The New York Times described the FY2011 Continuing Resolution debate, “It was billed as a battle over numbers, but the marathon floor fight in the House this week was more a drama over core political beliefs, with long-simmering resentments, partisan grandstanding and startling personal revelations sprinkled throughout the script.”
John Isaacs is Executive Director of the Council for a Livable World. On Saturday he wrote,
“amendments to cut the defense budget by members of both parties were
defeated, aside from the Rooney (R-FL) amendment to cut funds for the
second F-35 engines.” To see a list of the national security related amendments, click here. If House members couldn't see fit to cut defense spending, what could they cut? “Virtually no aspect of American life, from farms to the Internet to sexuality to education, was left untouched,” said Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times. There were proposals to cut AmeriCorps, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, border security and immigration programs, environmental regulations, the space program, a program to round up wild horses, federal funding of Planned Parenthood, and much more.
A pattern is beginning to emerge from the new Republican House majorities at the federal and state level. Get the chain saw out and hack away at programs we don't understand or don't like and do it under the aegis of “fulfilling campaign promises.” Never mind that the Democratic Senate in Washington will have its own ideas, just like Iowa's Senate Democrats did with HF 45. At least the House Republicans decided they shouldn't name projects after themselves. And by the way, Representative Steve King (D-IA) continued using the word “Obamacare” in the FY2011 Continuing Resolution debate after Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) suggested the House cease use of the term. Too much hot air from a town known for it. One hopes the electorate is watching these shenanigans.
~Paul Deaton is a native Iowan living in rural Johnson County and weekend editor of Blog for Iowa. E-mail Paul Deaton
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