Today, the Senate will begin the debate over an $106.5 billion dollar emergency spending bill for Iraq, Afghanistan, and Katrina. You might recall that the Senate passed "reform" legislation the last time they were in session that did not include earmark reform.
Trent Lott of Mississippi has inserted an earmark of $700 million to this emergency spending bill to relocate a rail line for the benefit of the casino industry. The rail line was destroyed by Katrina but has already been rebuilt at a cost of $250 million. I guess that was just the quick fix.
This is a complete give away to an industry that does quite well for itself. The "Big Six" gaming operators are expected to report a profit of $572 million, and that's just in the last quarter. If the casino industry wants the rail line moved, they should pay for it themselves.
There are a lot of projects the federal government needs to be spending money on to move along the rebuilding effort on the gulf coast, this isn't one of them.
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