The state trooper flashed his lights and forced the speeding car to the curb. As he approached the driver window, he found it already open and a frantic man calling to him. "Officer, I know I was going too fast, but it's an emergency. My wife is about to have our baby, her water broke an hour ago, and the pains are only three minutes apart. I've got to get her to the hospital right now!"
The trooper looked at him stonily, almost as if he hadn't heard him. He pulled out his pad and began to write out a ticket. Or at least, that's what it seemed.
"Officer, didn't you hear me?" the man asked. "My wife is in pain, we're about to have a baby right here, and the hospital is still 20 minutes away!"
The trooper ignored the plea and continued to write.
After several minutes, punctuated by the moans of the pregnant woman in the back seat, the trooper spoke. "Sorry about your problem, fella, but it's not my fault you were speeding. You know the law; you saw the speed limit. You should have left earlier. Maybe you shouldn't have gotten your wife pregnant. But I'll make a deal with you. I've made out this list of things I want you to buy for me, some at the hardware store, some at the grocery, only a few things at the clothing store. I'll go with you, and once you've bought me these things, I'll lead you to the hospital. Oh, and I won't write you a ticket. Let's go!"
Preposterous? Heartless? An inexcusable abuse of authority and responsibility? You bet. Yet pale in comparison to what a leftist, shamelessly political Democrat-controlled Congress is trying to pull on the president, the military, and you and me.
With absolutely no compunction, but with overt and obvious political intent – to embarrass, discredit and hamstring President Bush, with apparent disregard for the cost in lives and morale of our troops and no concern about what happens to the free world if America is perceived as defeated – these "pols" have fashioned an emergency spending bill and sent it to the president, knowing he'd be a fool to sign it!
Though President Bush warned them publicly, in advance, that he'd veto any bill that attempted to dictate an arbitrary timetable for pulling our soldiers out of Iraq, the Democrats who had overwhelmingly authorized this president to initiate and conduct a war against Saddam and his regime gleefully sent him just such a bill. And then, for good measure, if by some chance our commander in chief caved in to their demands out of his concern for our fighting men and women, they added $20 billion in "earmarks" – shameless pork projects that had nothing to do with supplying our troops – that would pick taxpayers' pockets to buy votes for themselves back home!
In other words, they put a gun in the ribs of the president, the military and the taxpayers – you and me – and said: "We're making you an offer you can't refuse. Sign, you lose and we win. Veto, you and our soldiers lose, and we win!"
It's the classic explanation of extortion: "You need to pay us to protect you," comes the offer. The response – "Protect me from who?" The answer – "From us."
The president will veto, of course, just as he warned. And already I've seen Rep. Murtha, a veteran who seems to have forgotten everything he ever knew about why men fight and what they deserve in support, say along with Harry Reid, right on television, "If the president vetoes this bill, he will go down in history as the man who withheld the most support to our military ... ever."
Could a ploy, a subversive plot, ever be more obvious?
And what are the pork projects these plastic patriots salted into the bill, intended to supply desperately needed support to America's bravest out there in Iraq? How about these wartime essentials:
- $24 million for funding for sugar beets!
- $20 million for insect infestation damage reimbursements in Idaho, Utah and Nevada! (Lessee, I seem to remember Harry Reid is a senator from Nevada … hmm.)
- $13 million for ewe lamb replacement and retention program(?!)
- $3.5 million in funding for guided tours of the Capitol! (Hey … need to show folks how their Congress works!)
- $100 million for dairy production losses!
- $1.5 billion for livestock production losses! (big for Southwest pols)
- $388.9 million for funding old Department of Transportation projects
- $640 million for LIHEAP. …What the heck is LIHEAP? Vital for our troops?
- $50 million for fisheries disaster mitigation fund!
... and on and on and on, 20 billion dollars worth! And who would pay for all that pork, added to an emergency supplemental spending bill meant to get our troops what they need?
Why, you and I, of course, the hapless taxpayers these hypocritical con artists were elected to represent and serve.
And what are sane and truly informed patriots saying?
American Legion National Commander Paul Morin: "I said it before and I'll say it again: This is a blueprint for disaster. It also sent a clear message that emboldens our enemies. Members of Congress should not be armchair generals; they need to understand that our deployed service members depend on this emergency funding to sustain and achieve their military missions."
VFW Commander in Chief Gary Kurplus: "As I have stated before, we have to let our generals be generals and wage this war as only they are trained to do."
Chicago Tribune: "… the House plan starts to tie the hands of American commanders just when the troop surge seems to be showing the first tentative signs of working."
Investor's Business Daily: "In passing a bill that will force a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq, Democrats have again shown why they can't be trusted with our nation's security – or with spending money responsibly."
And how about the venerable Washington Post? "As it is, House Democrats are pressing a bill that has the endorsement of MoveOn.Org but excludes the judgment of the U.S. commanders who would have to execute the retreat the bill mandates. … [Democrats] should not seek to use pork to buy a majority for an unconditional retreat that the majority does not support." (editorial "Retreat and Butter," March 23)
Chattanooga Times Free Press: "For Democrats in Congress to combine surrender with 'pork' is a shameful and nauseating procedure." (editorial "Buying Votes For Surrender," March 24)
Sen. Joe Lieberman: "It is wrong for Congress to try to micro-manage a war."
Jim Martin, 60 Plus Association president, a Marine himself: "The president has said he'd like congressional leaders to 'pass a clean bill that does not use funding for our troops as leverage to get special-interest spending for their districts.' Amen to that!"
What do you say? These are your soldiers, this is your America, these are your tax dollars ... and these are your elected representatives.
What will you tell them?
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