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$2 billion ‘kentucky kickback’ in budget

this is what a "moderate" view of things looks like. Always has been and as long as you've idiots still thinking Corporate Dems and Establishment GOP are the one's showing "common sense" and their ability to "compromise" is what this country needs, it always will be.
 
I said nothing of her deserving it or not...
Agreed, you did not. However, you insinuated we shouldn't have given it to her because she's rich. And if that wasn't your insinuation, then I have no idea why you mentioned it at all, because the only reason it's been made a big deal in the first place is because some people consider it unnecessary and wasteful spending.
because she is part of the 1% you hate.
Wait, timeout. Why do you think I hate the so-called 1%? Because I want them to make an equal sacrifice for the good of this country?

That doesn't mean I hate them at all. It just means they are not making an equal sacrifice.

she is in the very group you so desperately want to redistribute their wealth.
I've never understood why policies which benefit those who do not have money is "redistribution of wealth", but policies which monetarily benefit those who already have money is not.

do you know how many poor families could be fed with 175 grand?
What is it with you Democrats always wanting to take money owed to people and give it to those who are hungry? You Democrats are killing America.

but I guess because her husband was a democrat she is immune to the hate and the redistribution of her wealth
I assumed her husband was a Republican, to be honest. *shrug*

No real reason why, I just did. But that's just like you Democrats, always criticizing and making the emotional play to take money out of rich people's hands because they might be Republican. It's going to ruin this country.
 
built by lockheed martin.. by union workers....that f-35?

my pops worked in Aerospace for quite a while... the B-1 program, C-5 program, and hte B-2 program.
Aerospace, while one of my favorite industries ( I love me some planes), is rife with bloat, waste and fraud.... everybody knows it, nobody does anything about it.

As Robert Novak said 'after' his outing of Valerie Plame, treasonous like Snowden as Boehner said, corrupt capitalism is still better than any other system .
 
Well maybe if Lockheed Martin got off its collective tailpipe and got to work maybe they would not need to waste so much time and money.

Maybe if we let Boeing have a shot at producing more of its joint strike fighter prototype, then maybe Lockheed would appreciate the urgency of the matter

hehe, you act as if Boeing is any different... that's funny.

I'll relate a small story about the Aerospace industry, just to highlight
my pops was a precision driller on the B-1 program.... he drilled the little holes that rivets eventually go in.
I'm home on leave and we're talking shop, and he tells me about his hard days.... he tells me that on Monday he drilled 4 holes in a panel.. precision holes, no doubt.
those holes took him about 1.5 hours... so by 9:am he's done with this order.
friday morning, an inspector finally shows up to check his work and give the go ahead to proceed with the next 8 holes.
between monday morning and friday morning, my pops shot pool in the employee break room ( I saw it, it's badass... ) and watched movies and such.
he was given hte go-ahead ot work saturday and sunday on his next order... and order he completed by Friday afternoon.

now here's hte rub... pops was making 22 bucks an hour.. in the early 80's...saturday was double time, sunday was triple time.
that week, he made $880 in straight time and $880 in overtime for saturday and sunday.
$1760 bucks for drilling 12 holes through thin aluminum over the course of 7 days.. in today's money, that's $6,600 bucks.

my pops was lazy and he liked the idea of being handed something for nothing, so the job fit him well.

but yeah, Aerospace is big scam... most assuredly,some of the money they take is justified, i mean ,we are talking about high performance airframes and such.. but damn... I'd consider what they do to be fraud at worst, waste at best.
 
Agreed, you did not. However, you insinuated we shouldn't have given it to her because she's rich. And if that wasn't your insinuation, then I have no idea why you mentioned it at all, because the only reason it's been made a big deal in the first place is because some people consider it unnecessary and wasteful spending.
.

yes, i'm one who considers it unnecessary and wasteful spending.
I assume the widow probably does too....
 
yes, i'm one who considers it unnecessary and wasteful spending.
And what I'm saying is regardless of how much she has, there's no reason to be disrespectful to the memory of her husband, and considering how ultimately little the amount is and the fact it's a tradition, there's nothing wrong with giving it to her.

I assume the widow probably does too....
If so, she's more than welcome to decline it.
 
And what I'm saying is regardless of how much she has, there's no reason to be disrespectful to the memory of her husband, and considering how ultimately little the amount is and the fact it's a tradition, there's nothing wrong with giving it to her.

If so, she's more than welcome to decline it.

the " it's only a drop in the bucket" argument never flies with me... just saying.
175k here, a million here, a million there... pretty soon, we're talking about real money.
if I were to add up the figured behind every person on an internet forum saying " it's only a small amount" .. the total would probably be in the trillions.

i'm not hot under the collar about it... i can't get pissed every time government throws money it doesn't have away.. i'd stress myself to death 16 trillion times over.:lol:

giving 175 grand away to a person worth 60 million just because he husband died might be tradition or even well meaning and kind... but it's still unnecessary and wasteful, no doubt about it.

I'd like to think she would decline the money, but two things iv'e noticed about very rich people is that they don't pass on free money and they don't get or stay stay rich by giving their own money away...
 
the " it's only a drop in the bucket" argument never flies with me... just saying.
You're certainly welcome to that position, but as I said before to someone, there's a time for idealism and a time for realism.

175k here, a million here, a million there... pretty soon, we're talking about real money.
Agreed. But it doesn't make much sense to go after the $175k to the widow when we can tackle the million here and there first.

if I were to add up the figured behind every person on an internet forum saying " it's only a small amount" .. the total would probably be in the trillions.
I doubt it, but I understand the point you're making. But again, there's a time for realism.

giving 175 grand away to a person worth 60 million just because he husband died might be tradition or even well meaning and kind... but it's still unnecessary and wasteful, no doubt about it.
Perhaps, but giving $175k to a Congressman in the first place is wasteful, if you want to split hairs about it.

I'd like to think she would decline the money, but two things iv'e noticed about very rich people is that they don't pass on free money and they don't get or stay stay rich by giving their own money away...
Very true. Rich people rarely get rich by turning down money.
 
You're certainly welcome to that position, but as I said before to someone, there's a time for idealism and a time for realism.

Agreed. But it doesn't make much sense to go after the $175k to the widow when we can tackle the million here and there first.

I doubt it, but I understand the point you're making. But again, there's a time for realism.

Perhaps, but giving $175k to a Congressman in the first place is wasteful, if you want to split hairs about it.

Very true. Rich people rarely get rich by turning down money.

I don't think we'll agree on what constitutes realism.. or idealism
I think giving 175k to a multimillionaire because of tradition is idealism.... realism is saying " we're 16 trillion in debt and you are rich as ****... here's a nice hallmark card saying how much we loved your husband and thank him for his service.."...( obviously not in those exact words :lol:)
 
I don't think we'll agree on what constitutes realism.. or idealism
I think giving 175k to a multimillionaire because of tradition is idealism
I think it's the way our country has decided to honor the memory of a member of Congress.

.... realism is saying " we're 16 trillion in debt and you are rich as ****... here's a nice hallmark card saying how much we loved your husband and thank him for his service.."...( obviously not in those exact words :lol:)
Realism is accepting the drop in the ocean analogy and realizing the comparatively small token extended to the widow has basically nothing to do with the $16t debt.
 
hehe, you act as if Boeing is any different... that's funny.

I'll relate a small story about the Aerospace industry, just to highlight
my pops was a precision driller on the B-1 program.... he drilled the little holes that rivets eventually go in.
I'm home on leave and we're talking shop, and he tells me about his hard days.... he tells me that on Monday he drilled 4 holes in a panel.. precision holes, no doubt.
those holes took him about 1.5 hours... so by 9:am he's done with this order.
friday morning, an inspector finally shows up to check his work and give the go ahead to proceed with the next 8 holes.
between monday morning and friday morning, my pops shot pool in the employee break room ( I saw it, it's badass... ) and watched movies and such.
he was given hte go-ahead ot work saturday and sunday on his next order... and order he completed by Friday afternoon.

now here's hte rub... pops was making 22 bucks an hour.. in the early 80's...saturday was double time, sunday was triple time.
that week, he made $880 in straight time and $880 in overtime for saturday and sunday.
$1760 bucks for drilling 12 holes through thin aluminum over the course of 7 days.. in today's money, that's $6,600 bucks.

my pops was lazy and he liked the idea of being handed something for nothing, so the job fit him well.

but yeah, Aerospace is big scam... most assuredly,some of the money they take is justified, i mean ,we are talking about high performance airframes and such.. but damn... I'd consider what they do to be fraud at worst, waste at best.


A lot of that it is just the BS of politics. Programs are sold at unreasonable numbers with unreasonable deadlines to make them palaltable to politicians.
 
A major jump in the ticket price there mtm.

As the OP stated, A damn project that was slated to get $775,000,000 of Federal monies somehow got bumped to $2,918,000,000...

The timing of the "funding" doesnt raise any suspicion to you?
The price jump doesnt raise suspicion to you?

And to think Obama and harry Reid said they wouldn't negotiate. They held firm to their convictions courtesy of tax payer contributions.
 
Many on the left accuse conservatives of not supporting infrastructure spending. So libs pay attention... This is the kind of stuff conservatives object to. It's not the dam that's the problem, hell it may actually need repair, It's the way the funding is appropriated. Special deals and over funding, sending a glut of cash into a powerful senator's state; Who btw, just had an opponent from the right declare his intention to run against McConnell. It's this kind of self dealing, that creates opposition to infrastructure projects.
The Insiders: Mitch McConnell faces personal risk in saving the GOP

Is the dam a federal property? If not it is the way it was funded and the fact that it was funded with federal funds.
 
Is the dam a federal property? If not it is the way it was funded and the fact that it was funded with federal funds.

I would rather fund a dam than any part of Obamacare
 
A major jump in the ticket price there mtm.

As the OP stated, A damn project that was slated to get $775,000,000 of Federal monies somehow got bumped to $2,918,000,000...

The timing of the "funding" doesnt raise any suspicion to you?
The price jump doesnt raise suspicion to you?

this project was started over a decade ago. your op didn't give the full picture of the situation.
 
Though I clipped it, Your post #13 was outstanding..
Though I live in NorthCentral Illinois, we all understand this is about the 'Ohio River' and Interstate Commerce, not Kentucky .

yep, some wanted to make it about mcconnell when it wasn't.
 
You don't. I understand fully. But what you don't seem to understand if the larger picture, the idea of sacrificing a little to gain a lot.

What you consider pork those directly affected by it consider it necessary.

Agreed. But there's a time for idealism and a time for realism. This was a time for realism.

If we have to choose between allocating $2b which was going to be spent anyways versus defaulting on our debt and potentially causing a ripple effect of economic disaster across the world, then the $2b is the better option.

I can't believe I have to explain to you why a potentially devastating worldwide economic collapse is a bad thing.

That's true of all politicians in every party.

Additional nothing. Don't be naive, that money was going to be spent regardless of where it went.

That money helped prevent a possible epic economic disaster. That's beneficial.

Thats exactly what you are supposed to believe. You are a faithful follower and defender of the status quo....the powers that be are proud of you.
 
Ahh, I read the tone of your post wrong. My mistake.
Nonsense. The money to the widow was something like .004% of the the year's spending. If you're truly concerned about unnecessary waste's of money, there are plenty of other raindrops far larger.

regardless of the size of the droplet, it was droplets of varying size that make up the ocean of debt.

But be a good follower and keep defending the status quo.
 
Hey, McConnell is in a tight race next year. One could even call it a toss up at this point. Maybe he thinks the dam will be enough for him to win his re-election bid.

I hope the damn is what does him in during the primaries.
 
this project was started over a decade ago. your op didn't give the full picture of the situation.

The OP gives an absolute full picture, the project was slated to receive $775 Million but in exchange for McConnell's support it got $2.9 Billion.

What does the start date of the project have to do with McConnell getting an additional $2.2 Billion in exchange for his vote?
 
What about it?

Way late, way over budget, and performance numbers that keep getting worse to the point where the damned thing is being outperformed by current-generation fighters. Some estimates put the lifetime cost of the program at over a trillion dollars at this point.

You seriously think a plane can have a $200 million/aircraft flyaway cost because of unions?
 
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I hope the damn is what does him in during the primaries.

McConnell is going up against businessman Matt Bevin and Bevin has no chance in the primary. At least that is McCOnnell's only primary opponent as to date. Now the Democrats have 3 real good candidates vying for the opportunity to take him on to include the Democratic Secretary of State who has won state wide races. A professor of Louisville and someone else. Lundergan I think I spelled that right is the Sec of State and so far is giving McConnell fits. Charlie Cook calls this race a toss up at this point. But this far out it means little to nothing, but the possibility is there.
 
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