Action Alert: War, baseball & national ID

Action Alert: War, baseball & national ID

March 14, 2005

Tomorrow evening or Wednesday morning the U.S. House will vote on the
Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on
Terror, and Tsunami Relief -- all rolled into one awful bill: H.R. 1268. We urge a
"no" vote because of what the bill contains tonight. (We can only imagine what
will be added during the next 24 hours when members' pet projects are funded
to buy those members' votes.)

At $87.5 billion, it will be the second largest supplemental appropriations bill in
the history of the world (and also of the United States); second only to the one last
year. The funds will be considered "emergency" so they can ignore spending
caps and the billions in new spending won’t need to be offset by reducing spending
elsewhere.

Here is a partial list:
1. $656 million for tsunami relief.
2. $94 million for Darfur.
3. $150 million for food aid; most to Liberia and Sudan.
4. $580 million for peacekeeping; most for Sudan.
5. $582 million to build a new American embassy in Iraq.
6. $76 million to build a new airport in Kuwait.
7. $257 million for counter drug efforts in Afghanistan.
8. $372 million for health, reconstruction and alternative development programs to
help farmers stop raising poppy.
9. $200 million in economic aid for the Palestinians.
10. $150 million for Pakistan.
11. $200 million for Jordan.
12. $34 million for Ukraine.
13. $40 million for FBI personnel in Iraq.

This emergency wartime bill will also allow the District of Columbia to use taxpayers'
funds to build a new baseball stadium. Talk about an "emergency!"

What about the national ID? Well, it's not official at this moment, but the national
ID bill (H.R. 418) that the House recently passed will likely be added at the last
minute; thereby avoiding a separate vote by the U.S. Senate.

Yes, oppose this pork-laden emergency wartime bill because it includes the national
ID, or because it clears the way for a taxpayer-financed baseball stadium, or
whatever else might be added at the last minute...and you will be charged with "not
supporting our troops."

Tell your U.S. representative to vote against this extortion in the name of "patriotism"
and vote "no" on H.R. 1268 because you do support our troops, and don't support
the billions of dollars of pork.

To send your message, go to
http://capwiz.com/liberty/issues/alert/?alertid=7216431&type=CO

Kent Snyder
The Liberty Committee
http://www.thelibertycommittee.org/update03.14.05.htm