From VM Fri Dec 3 12:57:15 2004 X-VM-v5-Data: ([nil nil nil nil t nil nil nil nil] ["3744" "Friday" "3" "December" "2004" "12:12:17" "-0500" "wiebe@zianet.com" "wiebe@zianet.com" "<20041203171217.C64BA84CF@web39t.prvt.nytimes.com>" "102" "NYTimes.com Article: Editorial: The Cost of Congressional Caprice " "^From:" nil nil "12" nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil] nil) Return-Path: Received: from gomez.cs.pitt.edu (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by gomez.cs.pitt.edu (8.12.10/8.12.5) with ESMTP id iB3HEHIO009793 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA bits=168 verify=NO) for ; Fri, 3 Dec 2004 12:14:17 -0500 (envelope-from webapps@lga2.nytimes.com) Received: (from root@localhost) by gomez.cs.pitt.edu (8.12.10/8.12.5/Submit) id iB3HEGl9009791 for wiebe@cs.pitt.edu.CLEAN; Fri, 3 Dec 2004 12:14:16 -0500 Received: from ms4.lga2.nytimes.com (ms4.lga2.nytimes.com [199.239.138.148]) by gomez.cs.pitt.edu (8.12.10/8.12.5) with ESMTP id iB3HECIN009783 for ; Fri, 3 Dec 2004 12:14:12 -0500 (envelope-from webapps@lga2.nytimes.com) Received: from web39t.prvt.nytimes.com (www10.prvt.nytimes.com [10.5.101.139]) by ms4.lga2.nytimes.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id F303EB8144 for ; Fri, 3 Dec 2004 12:12:16 -0500 (EST) Received: by web39t.prvt.nytimes.com (Postfix, from userid 4040) id C64BA84CF; Fri, 3 Dec 2004 12:12:17 -0500 (EST) Reply-To: wiebe@zianet.com Errors-To: articles-email@ms1.lga2.nytimes.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-Id: <20041203171217.C64BA84CF@web39t.prvt.nytimes.com> X-Virus-Scanned: Secured by Pitt CS X-Spam-Status: No, hits=2.7 required=10.0 tests=CLICK_BELOW,LINES_OF_YELLING,NO_REAL_NAME, SPAM_PHRASE_02_03,US_DOLLARS_2 version=2.44 X-Spam-Level: ** From: wiebe@zianet.com Sender: articles-email@ms1.lga2.nytimes.com To: wiebe@cs.pitt.edu Subject: NYTimes.com Article: Editorial: The Cost of Congressional Caprice Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2004 12:12:17 -0500 (EST) The article below from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by wiebe@zianet.com. /--------- E-mail Sponsored by Fox Searchlight ------------\ SIDEWAYS - NOW PLAYING IN SELECT CITIES An official selection of the New York Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, SIDEWAYS is the new comedy from Alexander Payne, director of ELECTION and ABOUT SCHMIDT. Starring Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Sandra Oh and Virginia Madsen. Watch the trailer at: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/sideways/index_nyt.html \----------------------------------------------------------/ Editorial: The Cost of Congressional Caprice December 3, 2004 The pork-stuffed omnibus spending bill that Congress rushed to passage without reading largely remains a $388 billion national secret. But laugh lines are gradually leaking out. For instance, why not spend $100,000 for the Punxsutawney Weather Museum in Pennsylvania, considering the annual drollery of Groundhog Day? And once the lawmakers put the taxpayers in for $25,000 to finance mariachi music in Nevada, hey, why not go for $350,000 for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland? As for that $50,000 for wild hog control in Missouri, it's in the same spirit as the $335,000 to protect sunflowers from blackbirds in North Dakota. If only the bill were a mere laugh riot. But the truth is that the measure, cobbled together from 13 bills that Congress failed to weigh separately and thoughtfully, legislates the costs of next year's government by blindfold and bludgeon. Nowhere is this more graphic than in the shocking cut that Congress levied on the National Science Foundation, the research dynamo that does so much to feed the nation's economic growth through breakthrough advances in science and technology. Its budget will be $105 million less than last year's, even as lawmakers spared an estimated $15.8 billion for a record 11,772 pet projects. This binge of bipartisan pandering to voters includes such national priorities as renovating the Hot Springs bathhouses in Arkansas and bolstering the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame in Wisconsin. The science cut may seem minor in the context of the foundation's total, more than $5.4 billion. But it signals harsher times to come. For the past two years, a profligate Republican Congress has allowed the deficit to balloon by papering over such factors as the open-ended cost of the Iraq war and the revenues lost because of the Bush tax cuts. Now leaner, meaner government has become the rhetorical rage, with basic institutions like the Environmental Protection Agency and the affordable-housing program joining the science foundation in taking hits. The science foundation may have helped to pay for research on Web browsers and search engines, among countless innovations, but it doesn't seem to be holding its own against Punxsutawney Phil. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/03/opinion/03fri3.html?ex=1103093937&ei=1&en=9985b5ff0edbbde8 --------------------------------- Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy now for 50% off Home Delivery! 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