Pelosi-Reid-Obama Spending Bill: $150,000,000 For ‘Honey Bee Insurance’?!

I kid you not. $150,000,000 in earmarks and pork for “honey bee insurance” was stuffed into a dark corner of the latest version of the Pelosi-Reid-Obama spending / debt bill. (Full text here.) Honey bee insurance?!

Senate Republicans released these new highlights of your tax payer dollars being spent under the guise of economic stimulus. They were also kind enough to remind us what Barack Obama had promised, swore, to the American people days ago:

“We Will Ban All Earmarks In The Recovery Package.”
- Barack Obama, Press Conference, 1/6/09

Here are just six points in the bill:

$20 million “for the removal of small- to medium-sized fish passage barriers.” (Pg. 45 of Senate Appropriations Committee report: “20,000,000 for the removal of small- to medium-sized fish passage barriers)

$400 million for STD prevention (Pg. 60 of Senate Appropriations Committee report: “CDC estimates that a proximately 19 million new STD infections occur annually in the United States …The Committee has included $400,000,000 for testing and prevention of these conditions.”)

$25 million to rehabilitate off-roading (ATV) trails (Pg. 45 of Senate Appropriations Committee report: “$25,000,000 is for recreation maintenance, especially for rehabilitation of off-road vehicle routes, and $20,000,000 is for trail maintenance and restoration”)

$34 million to remodel the Department of Commerce HQ (Pg. 15 of Senate Appropriations Committee report: $34,000,000 for the Department of Commerce renovation and modernization”)

$70 million to “Support Supercomputing Activities” for climate research (Pgs. 14-15 of Senate Appropriations Committee Report: $70,000,000 is directed to specifically support supercomputing activities, especially as they relate to climate research)

$150 million for honey bee insurance (Pg. 102 of Senate Appropriations Committee report: “The Secretary shall use up to $ 50,000,000 per year, and $150,000,000 in the case of 2009, from the Trust Fund to provide emergency relief to eligible producers of livestock, honey bees, and farm-raised fish to aid in the reduction of losses due to disease, adverse weather, or other conditions, such as blizzards and wildfires, as determined by the Secretary”)

No wonder only 42% of America supports Obama’s debt bill.

Source: RedState

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