$200,000 for tattoo removal in Mission Hills, California

Rod:
You, as an American taxpayer, may have to limit your personal spending this year but, Congress is still on an unlimited spending spree with your money. This week the Senate will vote on yet another spending bill filled with huge budget increases and wasteful pork.

Last year Congress failed to pass 9 of the 12 appropriations bills to keep the government running, so they passed a Continuing Resolution for 2009, which kept spending to 2008 levels. Now, liberated from a presidential veto threat, they have rolled up those 9 bills into one massive Omnibus Appropriations bill that carries a $410 billion price tag. This is the second year in a row the budget bill has called for an 8% increase in spending, more than twice the rate of inflation. If you combine this spending with the just passed 'stimulus' bill, some agencies will receive an 80% increase for Fiscal Year 2009.

GO HERE AND SEND YOUR SENATORS A LETTER. TELL THEM YOU ARE FED UP WITH THIS SPENDING BINGE AND TO VOTE 'NO' ON H.R. 1105, THE OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS BILL

President Obama has promised to eliminate 'earmarks' in these spending bills, but he says this bill doesn't count because "it's last year's business". The result is a porkfest of 9,000 earmarks that continue to use your pocketbook to fund some ridiculous project some friend of a congressman or senator from back home thinks is cool. To name just a few:

• $1.8 million for swine odor and manure management in Iowa


• $1.9 million for the Pleasure Beach Water Taxi Service in Connecticut


• $238,000 for organizing Hawaiian sea voyages in ancient canoes


• $200,000 for tattoo removal in Mission Hills, California

You get the picture. If you are looking for change in Washington, you will not find it in this bill. It is business as usual for the special interests.
TAKE ACTION NOW BY EMAILING YOUR SENATORS AND URGE THEM TO VOTE 'NO' ON THE OMNIBUS, H.R. 1105

Here is what one senator had to say about this bill: "The bloated omnibus requires sacrifice from no one, least of all the government. It only exacerbates the problem and hastens the day of reckoning. Voters rightly demanded change in November's election, but this approach to spending represents business as usual in Washington, not the voters' mandate."

No, this was not a floor speech by a leading conservative, but a column by Democrat Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana published in the Wall Street Journal. The fact that a veteran Democrat in the Senate felt the need to go public with this criticism shows just how embarrassingly bad this bill is.

GO HERE AND CONTACT YOUR SENATORS DIRECTLY RIGHT NOW TO TELL THEM TO OPPOSE H.R.1105, THE OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS BILL

We at the American Conservative Union thank you for all you do to advance conservative free-market principles.
Sincerely,
Larry Hart
Director of Government Relations
American Conservative Union

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