War Spending Cut, Border Spending Up, Pork Abundant And Delicious

Looks like the President won't get to to (not) act on that veto threat after all...

[T]he Senate voted by a veto-proof 72-26 margin to kill an attempt by conservatives to cut the overall bill back to Bush's request — just a day after the White House issued a toughly worded promise to veto the $106.5 billion bill unless it is cut back to below $95 billion.

I'm not a huge fan of unlimited government spending, but I think it's worth noting what things the failed cut attempt would've removed from the bill- "$4 billion in farm aid, $1.1 billion for Gulf Coast fisheries and money for a much-criticized $700 million relocation of a Mississippi freight rail line". None of that necessarily seems like a waste of money to me. I can think of far more unnecessary things this Congress has pissed our tax money away on than this. For instance, is anyone asking for accountability for the billions of dollars that Halliburton and other private defense contractors have 'lost' or misspent in Iraq and Afghanistan? Just asking.

The more reported aspect of this story, however, was this-

The Senate voted Wednesday to divert some of the money President Bush requested for the war in Iraq to instead increase patrols against illegal immigrants on the nation's borders and provide the Coast Guard with new boats and helicopters.

An amendment was adopted, 59-39, to cut Bush's Iraq request by $1.9 billion to pay for new aircraft, patrol boats and other vehicles, as well as border checkpoints and a fence along the Mexico border crossing near San Diego.

I guess the Republican Senate decided the immigration concerns were more important to their voters this year than the war. The war? Man, that is sooo 2004. It should be noted that the miscellaneous pork inserted into the bill accounts for about $10 billion of its total.

Democrats are expressing public anger over the war spending cuts. I'm sure it's genuine.

Ahhhh, election years. Aren't they so much fun?