| xxxxx $3 million dollars in federal pork for tempe town toilet (aka tempe town lake) http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0925AZinDC25.html Blitzer zeroes in: Tempe town pork Sept. 25, 2005 12:00 AM Congressional "deficit hawks" have been beating paths to microphones to lists potential government spending cuts they say could help defray the costs of Hurricane Katrina rescue and recovery efforts, as well as potential costs related to Hurricane Rita. Their ideas range from delaying the Medicare prescription drug program, to cutting subsidies for Amtrak and public television, to selling off federal land. There are also cries to put on hold or eliminate the approximately $26 billion in appropriation earmarks contained in the recently approved six-year highway bill. The term "earmarks," also known as legislative "pork," refers to funding obtained by lawmakers for favorite projects that skirt the normal congressional review process. CNN's Wolf Blitzer, during a televised interview Thursday with Sen. John McCain. R-Ariz., noted, "There's what some would consider pork in the transportation bill for Arizona." "I'll give you three examples," Blitzer said to McCain, who is a vocal opponent of appropriation earmarks. Blitzer said there is "$3 million for a pedestrian-bicycle overpass in Phoenix; $3 million for a pedestrian bridge over a lake in Tempe; a Grand Canyon greenway trail, $1.5 million." "Are you willing to forgo what some would call pork in your state in exchange if everyone got rid of it?" Blitzer then asked the senator. "Absolutely. In a New York minute," McCain said of the appropriation earmarks obtained by some of his Arizona congressional colleagues. Price-tag puzzle? McCain and Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., are among those most prominently suggesting a delay in implementation of the Medicare prescription drug plan scheduled to begin Jan. 1. If delayed by a year, Flake said, up to $40 million could be saved to help the Gulf Coast recover. The White House has rejected that argument, however. In calling for a delay, both McCain and Flake have contended that the costs of the program are now projected to reach about $700 billion, almost double what was depicted when the program was approved by Congress in November 2003. But Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., who cast a crucial vote in getting the new plan passed, said there are indications the program may, in fact, only end up costing about $281 billion. Franks said Republican House members on Wednesday were given a report that indicates the program may put a "significant downward pressure on the cost of drugs," and thus lower the costs. "Because of the market reforms that were in the Medicare bill, that so many of us fought for tooth and nail," Franks said. "Because of the competition that the bill is creating - instead of these (drug coverage) policies being $35 - they're averaging $20 and $21." Franks also said the preventative measures in the bill are seen as leading to less spending on heart surgery and other major operations. "The bottom line is that these market reforms that we put in Medicare may be more powerful than even those of us who insisted so strongly upon them realized," Franks said. "I was very pleasantly surprised by this report. I hope that it was true." But Franks acknowledged the wide disagreement in cost projections. "In time, we will have clarity," he said. Border bill Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., plans to introduce his own major immigration-reform legislation Thursday, which he is describing as an "enforcement first" approach. Late last week, he was circulating a "Dear Colleague" letter seeking co-sponsors for the bill. His office said the measure was getting good initial response. Hayworth's bill would become just one of several approaches to immigration reform to emerge this year, many of them being proposed by Arizonans. Some lawmakers, like Hayworth, believe immigration reform should focus on better enforcement of existing laws and even provide a tough "no amnesty" stance for current immigration lawbreakers. Others favor ways to give some undocumented workers already in the country a pathway to citizenship. Hayworth's bill will not have a guest-worker provision. A recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D.C., found there are about 6.3 million foreigners working in the United States without legal authorization to do so. - Billy House Reach the reporter at billy.house@arizonarepublic.com or at 1 (202) 906-8136. |