I'm going to stick with the Mass. theme this morning, then shift over to the foreign desk for a while this afternoon.
"Kerry asks $20m for Kennedy institute; Fiscal groups criticize military bill earmark" by Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | September 25, 2009
WASHINGTON - A large military spending bill moving through Congress contains a little-noticed outlay for Boston that has nothing to do with national defense: $20 million for an educational institute honoring late Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.
I will now recall the great liberal lions Iraq war bluster as just that, thank you.
WAR PARTY REIGNS SUPREME n WASHINGTON (sob).
The earmark, tucked into the defense bill at the request of Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, requires US taxpayers to help the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate realize its goal of building a repository for Kennedy’s papers and an accompanying civic learning center on the University of Massachusetts at Boston campus in Dorchester, next to the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum....
Hey, I'm not trying to desecrate the man, but WHY MUST TAXPAYERS pick up the TAB? I'm sure PLENTY of his RICH BUDDIES and HONOREES at his uneral can SPARE SOME CHANGE, no?
At Kerry’s request, Senator Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, added the $20 million earmark to the defense bill, congressional aides said. The funding would come on top of $5 million secured with Kerry’s help earlier this year in a Labor Department spending bill, which provided money for the institute’s planning and design....
WTF? I'M SORRY, America, that MY STATE'S SENATORS are LOOTING YOU!
If it were UP TO ME, I would SEND IT ALL BACK -- BYPASSING CONGRESS and RIGHT BACK INTO YOUR POCKET or WALLET!
Kerry strongly defended the insertion of the $20 million earmark yesterday. He requested that it be included in the $360 billion defense budget, he said, to recognize Kennedy’s long tenure on the Senate Armed Services Committee. The institute will serve as a focal point for the late Massachusetts senator’s legacy, much as presidential libraries do.
So now they are equating him to a president with this pork-project? (Blog editor incredulous)
It will house Kennedy’s official papers and oral histories from the nearly half-century he served in the Senate. With a museum and exhibit space, it also will be dedicated to educating the general public, students, teachers, new US senators, and Senate staff about the role and importance of the Senate in American political life. The institute plans to host an annual “Summer Senate’’ for high school students from across the nation....
So it will be a pr pitch.
Let me know the next time you guys stop the next war, 'kay? Then I'll get back to the "Senate."
The center had raised an additional $20 million in private donations earlier this year, and more money has been contributed by members of the public since Kennedy’s death last month from brain cancer, said Joe Ganley, an institute spokesman. Ultimately, Ganley said, the majority of the center’s funding will come from private donors, not taxpayers. He said many of Boston’s most influential civic leaders, including businessman Jack Connors, are helping to raise funds....
Why can't it ALL BE PRIVATE?
The item is drawing fire from fiscal watchdog groups, who assert that military funds should not be raided to pay for an institution that has nothing to do with improving military readiness.
“Whatever beneficial value civic education may have, it’s hard to see why the Defense Department should pay for it,’’ said Laura Peterson, a senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense in Washington. “It would seem the location of this hefty earmark has more to do with the powerful position of its sponsor than [the Defense Department’s] responsibility to educate elementary school children.’’
Using the national defense budget for such earmarks is considered a particular affront by those advocating for fiscal discipline in the midst of two wars that are straining Pentagon coffers.
Yeah, ending those and not starting any others sure would help.
Oh, yeah, NOT FALLING for the FALSE FLAG TERROR ATTACK THIS TIME, MSM, so SHADDUP!!!!
Overall, the Senate version of the bill includes 778 earmarks worth $2.65 billion, including a number that have little or nothing to do with military matters. A major concern is what gets cut from the Pentagon budget to make room for things like the Kennedy institute, said Winslow Wheeler, director of the Strauss Military Reform Project at the left-leaning Center for Defense Information in Washington.
“The committee did not add money to the bill to pay for its billions of dollars in pork,’’ Wheeler said. A spokesman for Inouye declined to explain why the Kennedy institute earmark was inserted into the Pentagon budget, rather than into an education bill or other piece of legislation. In a statement released by his office, Inouye said, “It is my sincere hope that many of these students will be inspired to seek a life of public service, with the same spirit of patriotism and love of country that I saw each and every day from Senator Kennedy.’’
While Kerry said using the defense budget to fund Kennedy’s institute was a tribute to his “leadership on military technology, weapons systems, and safety equipment for our troops,’’ Wheeler said he believes there is a more practical reason. “It’s a natural for Kerry to go to Inouye on this,’’ Wheeler said. “If it’s in the defense bill it must be a good idea. And the defense bill is sure to pass. He wanted a fast vehicle to get it enacted.’’
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Beyond raising questions about the practice of slipping earmarks into bills in Congress, the provision also presents a potential ethical question for Paul Kirk, the longtime Kennedy aide Governor Deval Patrick appointed to fill the late senator’s seat yesterday. Kirk, if he casts a vote in favor of the defense bill, he also will be voting in favor of an institute to which he has had close personal and professional connections. A spokeswoman for Kirk, Stephanie Cutter, said yesterday that he does not see his roles as conflicting....
Oh, of course not, Steph.
--more--"
Related: Kirk Replaces Kennedy
