Oklahoma Republican Targets UVM $$$

He said what?

Hey, that's Oklahoma Republican United States Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. on C-SPAN late Wednesday morning and he's got an amendment to the "Emergency" supplemental $100 billion-plus spending bill that's supposed to fund the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and more, including a little "pork."

Only Sen. Coburn's amendment is designed to remove a certain porky "earmark" attached to the spending bill currently on the floor by an unnamed senator that would send $2 million of U.S. taxpayers money to the University of Vermont to establish an academic chair in education quality named for former U.S. Rep. and Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont.

Coburn, the Oklahoma physician-turned-politician (like Ho-Ho?), called the Vermont earmark:

"An earmark for which we don’t have the money. We’re not going to be able to pay for it...

"It's another $2 million to a university that’s already gotten $400 million of taxpayers' money (since 2000). I don’t think there’s any question in the average American’s mind in regards to that.

"Let me just read what the University of Vermont has gotten:

2000 - $54 million

2001 - $60 million

2002 - $69 million

2003 - $76 million

2004 - $70 million

2005 - $68 million

"There’s a lot of money that’s already gone up there. A lot of it borrowed. At the present time the University of Vermont has an endowment of $282,594,000.

"Now, interest on that at 6 percent gives you about, close to $15 million-a-year, just the interest off that endowment.

"I believe they’ve got plenty of money to fund this chair to honor Senator Jeffords.

"The endowment grew 16 percent last year. It’s growth last year was 20-times the amount of this earmark.

"Certainly not an 'emergency.'"

Coburn's got a point, eh?

“When we queried the University of Vermont about this earmark, we asked what were the estimated costs of the project longterm?

“They couldn’t give us an answer.

“Who was going to finance it after the program was established?

“They couldn’t give us an answer.

“How will the federal funding be expended?

“They couldn’t tell us that.

“Did the university request the funding?

“We don’t know the answer to that either. None of these questions have been answered by the University of Vermont."

Plus, $400 million to UVM since 2000?

How come no football team?

Just heard via email (1 p.m.), from U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy's veteran Press Secretary David Carle.

Yes, the $2 million for the Jeffords Institute is a Leahy earmark.

AND it looks like Coburn's won the day.

"At this moment," Carle informs us,  "there’s still hope of finishing the overall bill this week – which includes the earmarks - for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

"To raise the chances of that being possible there are efforts by the leadership to thin the remaining issues that have to be debated and voted on, and to further that process," writes Mr. Carle, "Senator Leahy this afternoon has agreed to the leadership’s request that the Coburn amendment be accepted by voice vote, and he plans on resuming the effort [to get the money for UVM's Jeffords Institute] in the FY08 appropriations bills."

How's that song go?

"You've got to know when to hold 'em,
know when to fold 'em,
know when to walk away,
and know when to run.....

Comments

[one_vermonter]

Coburn's just pissed because the UVM Young Republican Club has been kicked out of the student association.

Turns out tht the UVM-wingers never repaid a loan that they took out from the SA -- a loan they used to get Newt Gingrich to speak on campus.

Heh. Oh well.

[RH factor]

52 million dollars A MINUTE goes for the Iraq war.

Are Democrat's 3/5ths human. Seeing we have 2 or three society's politically - indpendent republican and democrat, according to law enforement if you are democrat you have less than an equal shake under law. Hell you have less than equal shake even before the AG was caught. Makes you want do something doesn't it?

[jvwalt]

Nice of Coburn to get a conscience about earmarks, after six years jam-packed with Republican pork. If only he had such dedication on a routine basis. Maybe he could have blocked the Bridge to Nowhere, or even read the Patriot Act before voting for it.

I don't think it's any coincidence that a GOP Senator raised a stink about an appropriation honoring that "turncoat" Jeffords.

[Pizzaman]

Hey dipshit, if you got your head out of your ass long enough you would have known that Coburn fought pork such as the bridge to no where. Maybe its time for you to wake up and stop looking at the world with your Leahy bleached glasses???

[jvwalt]

Pizzaman: It is an honor, sir, to be called "dipshit" by the likes of you. Where did you learn the fine art of political discourse? And does your employment of words like "dipshit" and "head out of your ass" indicate that you are one of our country's dedicated advocates for high moral standards in public and private conduct?

Uh huh.

[Pizzaman]

If you didn't know that Coburn fights all pork, then you are a dipshit. As they say if the shoe fits.