Are you a fan of the ancient Greek and Roman gods? No doubt lots of folks think they’re nifty . . . even Hephaestus, the fire god, known to the Romans as Vulcan.
But does your affection for the god of fire mean that we should want the nation’s taxpayers to spend $3.5 million to clean up a statue of Vulcan out in Birmingham, Alabama? I mean, couldn’t the folks out in Birmingham handle it themselves with a bucket of water and some good rust remover? Okay if it’s a large statue, maybe lots of water and rust remover? It just seems to me this is a local job.
I’m not the biggest fan of Senator John McCain and his idea of campaign finance reform. His idea of making electoral politics more equitable is to hobble free speech and hamper electoral competition. The Senator has the wrong solution for a very real problem . . . the problem of pork.
But, he’s right about the pork. It was McCain who tried to stop federal funding to scrub down the statue of Vulcan. His effort has been dubbed “symbolic” because “only” a few million dollars were in play. McCain’s staff had identified some 24 pages of alleged pork in the appropriations for the Department of Interior alone. But even the amendment to stop this one symbolic slice of bacon got clobbered by a vote of 87 to 12. So, that’s at least 87 mutually back-scratching senators who think they’re entitled to splurge taxpayer dollars on their district, at your expense and mine. Vulcan, have I got a job for you.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.