The entire flap this morning over the Senate bill that ended the shutdown as having been negotiated by Mitch McConnell in order to get an "earmark" or "pork" for Kentucky just got shot down.
Shortly after the bill was released late Wednesday, some critics looked at this provision and saw a favor for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), one of the two Senate leaders who negotiated the bill. He is up for reelection in 2014.
The Senate Conservatives Fund, which has targeted McConnell with attacks from the right, called it “the Kentucky Kickback.”
It’s true that McConnell had requested “earmark” funds for this project in the past, according to a database of such requests kept by Legistorm. Did he request that its inclusion in Wednesday’s Senate bill?
“No, he did not,” Don Stewart, McConnell’s spokesman, said in an e-mail message.
Instead, Senate staffers said there was bipartisan support for increasing the project’s funding. The provision does not allocate $2 billion; rather, it raises the cap for the amount Congress could allocate later. President Obama asked for it in his 2014 budget, and both the House and the Senate had passed bills allowing the increase this year.
If the program had to be shut down and then restarted, one Democratic aide said, the “cost to taxpayers would be an additional $80 million over the next six months, and $160 million if the project were terminated for one year.”
That pressing deadline was the reason that the funding was included in this bill. “Senator McConnell did not push for this provision,” the Democratic aide said. [Washington Post] (emphasis added)
So, confirmed by both sides, Mitch McConnell did not request the funding, BARACK OBAMA DID!
And it was necessary funding to hold down costs in the tens of millions of dollars, for a project that is absolutely critical to river traffic on that stretch of the Ohio. It is a project approved in 1988 to replace dams built in the 1930's!
How embarrassing for the Senate Conservatives Fund to have made such a wild and unfounded accusation.
There is some indication from early releases that these charges were brought about by Bevin supporters who didn't fully understand the history of this subject.
Posted by: Richard | October 17, 2013 at 07:58 PM