ROTFL:
Americans for Prosperity Calls President Bush’s Veto Threat a “Positive Sign,” Says “Taxpayers Won’t Be Fooled or Amused” If Non-Emergency Earmarks Remain in Smaller Spending Bill
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – April 25, 2006
Contact: Ed Frank or Annie Patnaude (202) 349-5880 or (703) 408-0572
WASHINGTON – Tim Phillips, President of the free-market grassroots group Americans for Prosperity (AFP), today called President Bush’s threat to veto a pending earmark-laden emergency spending bill if it exceeds his budget request “a positive sign that taxpayer anger about out-of-control spending is finally being heard in Washington.” Phillips also warned that “taxpayers will not be fooled or amused if Congress cuts truly vital military funding and emergency aid so its non-emergency earmarks and pet projects fit under the President’s limit.”
Since the Senate Appropriations Committee added billions of dollars in extra spending to the bill during its markup on April 4, Americans for Prosperity and other free-market groups and elected officials have expressed serious concerns with the number and size of non-emergency earmarks in the legislation. Particularly controversial is a proposed earmark that would use federal taxpayer dollars to rip up brand-new railroad tracks in Mississippi that were just rebuilt after they were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Phillips visited the site of the proposed earmark in Gulfport, Miss., less than two weeks ago as part of AFP Foundation’s “Ending Earmarks Express,” a nationwide grassroots bus tour of egregious earmarks.
“The many grassroots taxpayers I have talked to all across America recently are absolutely fed up with the wasteful spending and earmarks coming out of Congress,” Phillips said. “The American taxpayers are not stupid – they will know if necessary funding for our troops is being cut so non-emergency pet projects like the Railroad to Nowhere can slip through.”
Americans for Prosperity last week launched a website dedicated to derailing the $700 million Railroad to Nowhere earmark at www.RailroadToNowhere.com. The group also sent a letter to every U.S. Senator, urging them to remove this $700 million earmark from the emergency spending bill.
“To be sure, Hurricane Katrina qualified as an emergency and we as a nation should help the citizens of the Gulf Coast who had their lives turned upside down by the storm,” Phillips said in the letter. “However, after personally visiting Gulfport, I remain more convinced than ever that appropriating $700 million in an ‘emergency’ spending bill to destroy one of the only things that has been completely rebuilt there is the wrong way to manage the taxpayers’ money. After all, if tearing down the railroad and moving it a few short miles away is such an urgent ‘emergency,’ why was the railroad rebuilt after Katrina destroyed it, at a cost of nearly $300 million?”
Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is a nationwide organization of citizen leaders committed to advancing every individual’s right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP believes reducing the size and scope of government is the best safeguard to ensuring individual productivity and prosperity for all Americans. AFP educates and engages citizens in support of restraining state and federal government growth, and returning government to its constitutional limits. For more information, visit americansforprosperity.org
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