'Kentucky Kick-back': Deal gives McConnell $2 billion earmark

McConnell-Reid Deal Includes Earmark for Kentucky Project

Phillip M. Bailey
WFPL News
10/16/2013

real viagra without prescription

A proposal to end the government shutdown and avoid default orchestrated by Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Leader Harry Reid includes a $2 billion earmark for a Kentucky project.

Language in a draft of the McConnell-Reid deal (see page 13, section 123) provided to WFPL News shows a provision that increases funding for the massive Olmsted Dam Lock in Louisville from $775 million to nearly $2. 9 billion…

…Asked about the additional funding in the proposal, McConnell spokesman Robert Steurer directed all questions to lawmakers who worked on the bill directly.

“Senators (Diane) Feinstein and (Lamar) Alexander, the chair and ranking member of the energy and water subcommittee, worked on the issue and can help you,” he says.

Since 2009, McConnell has been an outspoken supporter of the project, and has been working on getting its funding for some time…

The complete article, with video, is at WFPL.

Related: Roll Call: Only these 18 Republican Senators stood firm and voted against funding Obamacare.

We might as well have 28 empty desks in the Senate Chamber because the Republicans in the Senate voted right along with Harry Reid and the Democrats tonight.

Here’s the roll call of the only 18 Senators who stood strong and voted against the Senate’s “deal”…

…And here are are the 81 weasels…

Read the lists at the link.

Senator Mike Lee wrote on his Facebook page tonight:

Here we are again.

Another unnecessary crisis. A proposal that maintains the status quo. Very little time to read and evaluate the bill. No time to explain it to our constituents.

This is Washington. It is exactly the kind of thing the American people are fed up with and exactly why several of my colleagues and I began this effort to defund and delay #Obamacare back in July.

It appears that this particular fight will end much the same way Obamacare began: in a last-minute deal, negotiated in back rooms, then forced on Congress and the American people.

The Washington Establishment can’t bring itself to believe that this is why Congress has a poor approval rating – because Washington doesn’t listen to the American people. It ignores them. And when the American people can no longer be ignored, the administration shuts down national parks, blocks veterans from going to their own memorials, uses the IRS to target certain groups, and holds hostage critical funding for cancer research, low-income women and children, veterans’ health benefits, border security, and our National Guard.

It is shameful how Washington treats the American people and the people are right to be upset about it…

Read the whole thing.

–

–

Update:

–

–

Sen. Paul Opposes Senate Debt Deal

Oct 16, 2013