If Obama is serious about reining in extraneous spending, he might want to start by vetoing the $10 billion “Coburn Omnibus” if it passes. The bill is so named because it is composed of a hodgepodge of various pork projects Sen. Coburn suceeded in blocking over the past term. Some of the lowlights, via Coburn’s office:
• A provision that takes about 8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 300 million barrels of oil out of production in Wyoming, according to the Bureau of Land Management. The energy resources walled off by this bill would nearly match the annual production levels of our two largest natural gas production states – Alaska and Texas.
• $3 million for a “road to nowhere” through a wildlife refuge in Alaska.
• $1 billion for a water project designed to save 500 salmon in California. At this price, each salmon would be worth far more than its weight in gold.
• $3.5 million to help celebrate the 450th birthday of St. Augustine Florida, in 2015.
• $4 million to protect livestock from wolves that Congress helped reintroduce into the wild.
• $250,000 to help bureaucrats decide how to designate Alexander Hamilton’s boyhood home.
• $5 million on botanical gardens in Hawaii and Florida.