Sen. Paul Sounds Alarm on 6,000+ Earmark Spending Bill

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Last week, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) spoke on the senate floor ahead of a vote on a $468 billion spending bill filled with over 6,000 earmarks.

The spending bill being considered by the Senate contains more than 6,000 earmarks detailed over 605 pages which include:

1. $4 million for a waterfront walkway in New Jersey
2. $3.5 million for Detroit’s Thanksgiving Parade float maker’s new headquarters
3. $1.75 million for the Met (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) in New York City
4. $1 million for an environmental justice center in New York City
5. $500,000 for gardens in San Francisco
6. $1 million to a non-profit in Minnesota to build a coffee shop and a greenhouse for refugees
7. $1 million to help San Francisco organic dairy farmers
8. $500,000 for a “cybercrime vehicle” for the Honolulu police department
9. $1.2 million for bike path resurfacing in Rhode Island
10. $209,000 for HVAC replacement for the “Charles Town Opera House” in West Virginia

As Dr. Paul said on the floor, “These are only ten of the over 6,000 wasteful earmarks included in the minibus… But these are my terrible ten, and there are more. And this is only funding half of government. And a couple more weeks they are coming back. And if there were 6,000 earmarks this week, I’m guessing they’ll have 6,000 next week.

“It gets worse. It’s leading to generalized inflation. So, not only are they ignoring the general welfare clause, which means that spending and taxation is supposed to help everyone equally – has to be for a general cause such as the national defense that we don’t have for Maine or Rhode Island or Kentucky, the national defense is for everyone it is a general cause.

“But when we spend it on parochial causes, when we run up this enormous deficit, it hurts us all generally. Inflation is a general punishment. So, I would say this bill is not for the general welfare of the country. It is for the general punishment of the country, because if it continues a $1.5 trillion deficit that leads to inflation, that causes all of us to not be able to afford food, clothing, gasoline.

“That’s what this is. This bill is an insult to the American people. The earmarks are all the wasteful spending that you could ever hope to see, and it should be defeated.”

You can watch Dr. Paul’s full floor remarks HERE.

Author: Press Release