When it is hiding pork.
Sen. Enzi points to the $4 trillion Kennedy bill:
Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and
Pensions (HELP) Committee and the Senate's only accountant,
today criticized wasteful spending in a health care reform bill
released by HELP Committee Democrats this week.
"The Kennedy-Dodd bill will pave sidewalks, build jungle gyms,
and open grocery stores, but it won't bring down health care
costs or make quality coverage more affordable," Enzi
said.
"In a time of record debt and deficits, how can Democrats
justify the wasteful spending in this bill?
"We need to root out the waste, fraud and abuse that is driving
up health care costs - not create a whole slew of new wasteful
programs," said Enzi, the only Senator to serve on the HELP,
Finance and Budget Committees, which share jurisdiction over
health care reform.
The HELP Committee Democrats' bill would:
·
Establish a "Community Makeover Program" to spend billions to
beautify streets, up to $10 per person in selected communities;
·
Fund a federal government program to build new sidewalks and
bike paths, and put up street lights;
·
Finance new grocery stores and farmers' markets;
·
Revoke employers rights to provide free wellness benefits to
employees; ·
Mandate that a new Washington health police bureaucracy dictate
what local restaurants can offer their customers; and,
·
Subsidize community projects like building jungle gyms in
parks.
It must be genetic. Legislators can't keep pork out of
military appropriations. They can't keep it out of health
care reform. They can't stop even when the U.S. is running
a nearly $2 trillion deficit.
