Remember last fall when the car executives flew in private jets to Washington to ask for money from Congress?

One Congressman was so outraged that he compared it to a homeless man showing up at a soup kitchen in a top hat and tuxedo. Congress was right to criticize the car executives for this extravagance. But hypocrisy is not limited to the car industry.
It turns out that members of Congress like private jets, too:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124986067095218079.html

According to the Wall Street Journal:

“The resistance to buying eight Gulfstream and Boeing planes comes as members of both chambers of Congress embark on the busiest month of the year for official overseas travel. The plan to upgrade the fleet of government jets, which was included in a broader defense-funding bill, has also sparked criticism from the Pentagon, which has said it doesn’t need half of the new jets.”

So let me get this straight: Congress criticizes the car executives for flying on jets, then orders more jets for the government to use than the Pentagon even asked for and does so while many of its members are getting ready to fly around the world on overseas travel.

It reminds me of what Will Rogers once said: every time Congress makes a joke it’s a law and every time Congress makes a law it’s a joke.

The good news is that Nancy Pelosi and Congressional Democrats seem to be reconsidering their plans to fund contraception services in the stimulus package.  Apparently, they couldn’t quite make the case that this would create new jobs:

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/01/27/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4756202.shtml

However, the bad news is that there is still a lot of pork getting cooked in this stimulus package.  More than $800 billion in new spending.  And yet so much of it will be wasted on programs that won’t create jobs.  In this present economic crisis, the test should be: will it create new jobs? Take a look at the list below of pork items that are currently in the stimulus package.  And ask yourself if any of these will create new jobs:

• $6.7 billion to renovate and improve energy efficiency at federal buildings
• $2.5 billion to upgrade low-income housing
• $1.1 billion to Amtrax
• $1.8 billion to repair National Park Service facilities
• $800 million to clean up Superfund sites
• $600 million for General Services Administration to replace older vehicles with alternative fuel vehicles
• $426 million to construct facilities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• $400 million for NASA scientists to conduct climate change research
• $400 million to replace the Social Security Administration’s 30-year-old National Computer Center
• $360 million for new child care centers at military bases
• $276 million to update technology at the State Department
• $200 million to rehabilitate the National Mall
• $150 million for the Coast Guard to repair or remove bridges deemed a hazard to navigation
• $50 million for the Endowment for the Arts
• $44 million for repairs at the Agriculture Department headquarters in Washington

-Randy Hill