Wild horses couldn’t keep Democrats from spending money
posted at 10:11 am on July 17, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
With deficits rising out of sight and more Americans out of work than any time in the last several decades, one might think that Congress would take a sober and skeptical look at any unnecessary spending. Okay, okay, you got me — I didn’t write that with a straight face. But even I was surprised to find Democrats pushing to spend almost a billion dollars on a program to provide a new welfare program to …. horses?
Yup (via Power Line):
[Today], House Democrats plan to hold a vote on the “Restore Our American Mustangs Act” (H.R.1018), which would create a new $700 million welfare program for wild horses. This floor action comes at a time when unemployment has soared to 9.5 percent, a 26-year high, and the federal deficit has grown to a historic $1 trillion.
“There are serious issues facing our country right now and it’s absurd that Democrat leaders believe that spending $700 million to pamper wild horses is the best use of our time and Americans’ tax dollars,” said Ranking Member Hastings. “Instead of restoring American mustangs, let’s restore American jobs and put the horsepower back into our economy.”
Here’s what HR1018 proposes to do with the $700 million:
- Conducts a horse census every two years
- Provides “enhanced contraception” and birth control for horses
- Establishes an additional 19 million acres of public and private land for wild horses
- Covers $5 million tab to repair horse damage to land
- Mandates that government bureaucrats perform home inspections before Americans can adopt horses
Birth control … for horses. How exactly does that restore the mustang population? If it needs “restoring”, doesn’t that suggest that we need to encourage reproduction rather than launching a mustang safe-sex program? Of course, mustang rubbers would make each successive “horse census” easier, assuming mustangs can figure out how to wear them.
And what exactly does a government inspection of a home for “adopting” a mustang mean? It sounds like a back-door way for the federal government to interfere with horse sales, or at best a wildly stupid idea about the role of the federal government in relation to American homes and pet adoption. Note that the federal government does not do home inspections for human adoption; those get handled by state governments.
Of course, it’s the third point that really means anything at all. It’s a land grab. Congress wants to condemn another 19 million acres of land for their own control, and they’re using the mustangs as an excuse. It’s transparent, and transparently stupid in the middle of this economic crisis. Democrats need to quit laying money on the horses — and while they’re at it, quit betting with House money on socialist schemes.
Update: For those who think that the government has become a joke … well, you may be right.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2
Please elaborate.
jazz_piano on July 17, 2009 at 11:07 AM
I want a pony.
I want! I want!
reaganaut on July 17, 2009 at 11:07 AM
I was kind of hoping it would be the MSM and then certain Academia. For the most part it would be far more fitting just to take their money away and make them live like they tried to make the rest of the country.
jmarcure on July 17, 2009 at 11:11 AM
Stop your complaining everyone. We all know that there is an implied equine clause in the Constitution. Or at least Sonia will find one once she gets to SCOTUS.
turfmann on July 17, 2009 at 11:13 AM
LOL
jazz_piano on July 17, 2009 at 11:14 AM
$700,000,000? Aw, come on, that’s nothing. After all we are now $1,000,000,000,000 in the hole and we still have three months to go for this year’s budget. Besides Biden said we need to spend more in order to get out of this. This will create jobs I tell ya, jobs.
boomer on July 17, 2009 at 11:15 AM
Rename this the Stop Horse Intercourse Treatment, with the appropriate acronym, and it might lose Donk support.
Steve Z on July 17, 2009 at 11:17 AM
Yes, jobs for ‘equine social workers’ and ‘repairers of land abused by horses.’
We need more people in these careers. And more attorneys. And fewer engineers.
/sarc
jazz_piano on July 17, 2009 at 11:18 AM
Well for years a lot of us saw this coming and were told to put our tinfoil hats back on. For years people have asked why I didn’t have a 401k and I use to tell them it didn’t matter because by the time I was of the age to retire we would be a hardcore socialist nation and the government would either kill me off or have confiscated everyone’s wealth to pay for my retirement. I’m 54 so I was a bit off with the timing.
jmarcure on July 17, 2009 at 11:19 AM
Heh, why not right? Oy ve
FontanaConservative on July 17, 2009 at 11:19 AM
Maybe we can get high schoolers to do it. It will be better practice than cucumbers
MarkTheGreat on July 17, 2009 at 11:23 AM
Whoa!!!
You just hit on the what is really going on here. Obama wants a tighter control on the wild horse market because that is what we are going to be using for transportation once he gets done with Government Motors.
If this gets out speculators in hay farming and buggy whip manufacturing are going to make a killing in the futures market.
Yoop on July 17, 2009 at 11:23 AM
Of COURSE your home should be inspected before adopting a horse. I mean, what kind of caveman would make a horse sleep on the floor? It has to have it’s own bedroom and bed, it’s own T.V. and interwebs!
What? A stable? What are you, crazy?
Spiritk9 on July 17, 2009 at 11:23 AM
Steve Z on July 17, 2009 at 11:17 AM
Brilliant.
cs89 on July 17, 2009 at 11:27 AM
Two men or two women having a horse is unnatural.
A man and a woman having a horse is the way nature intended it.
MadisonConservative on July 17, 2009 at 11:28 AM
That last one got me. There are already programs set up to adopt out mustangs to people and last I heard it was working. I suppose this will somehow create jobs, having government workers come out to your home to check it out. And does the government get to be involved with the sale/disposal of the horses that don’t get adopted? This truly frightens me to think about. I used to take care of the horses at a federal facility near me where they also had farm animals for display for kids. Some of those workers had been at this facility for many years and still were actually afraid of the animals and knew zero about their basic care. They had an old draft horse that went down in his stall and couldn’t get up. Did they have the common sense to call the vet and at least put the poor beast out of his misery? Nope. They just let him die there by himself, stuck in his stall. So are these the people who are going to be in charge of making these decisions? Scary.
4shoes on July 17, 2009 at 11:28 AM
Madison cracks me up, see Meghan McCain thread.
Cindy Munford on July 17, 2009 at 11:29 AM
These morons spend like drunken sailors only with less rational thought behind their actions.
Paradox Drive on July 17, 2009 at 11:36 AM
MadisonConservative on July 17, 2009 at 11:28 AM
You can love your horse, just don’t love your horse.
cs89 on July 17, 2009 at 11:36 AM
Mr. Ed and Eve, not Mr. Ed and STEVE!
MadisonConservative on July 17, 2009 at 11:36 AM
MadisonConservative on July 17, 2009 at 11:36 AM
Umm- think there’s a typo in your copy of Genesis. Might want to look into that.
Heh.
cs89 on July 17, 2009 at 11:46 AM
Ed, obviously, you have not been paying attention. If we need to spend more money to keep out of bankruptcy, it is only logical that enhanced horse contraception will lead to increased reproduction.
mwdiver on July 17, 2009 at 11:48 AM
What are those horses going to do with another 19 million acres in the desert? My family breeds and (theoretically sells) paint horses. It kind of looks like in the Obama economy a pony is at the top of list for most people.
TXMomof3 on July 17, 2009 at 11:52 AM
There’s already a mustang plan in place. Covers all that except the extra land. If they plan on gelding more stallions for birth control, why do they need more land? This could provide a lot of green job, too.
Kissmygrits on July 17, 2009 at 11:53 AM
Make that not, see what happens when you try to look like your working?
TXMomof3 on July 17, 2009 at 11:55 AM
I think they will next insert into the program a clause that horse abortions be funded by Medicaid.
txdoc on July 17, 2009 at 11:59 AM
I say we spend as much as necessary to keep these horses happy and healthy, but nothing on birth control for them. We could get pretty hungry here in Otopia. And then we can sell them to France.
NellE on July 17, 2009 at 12:01 PM
Ed forgot that the current Democrat style is to name bills opposite what they actually do, e.g. “Employee Free Choice Act” will remove the employee’s right to a secret ballot and encourage thug coercion, thus the opposite of “free choice”.
I wonder if part of the money will go towards teaching mustangs how to masturbate? Won’t that result in more jobs??
electric-rascal on July 17, 2009 at 12:02 PM
They can increase the protein in the food stamp program with the mountain oysters!!!!
txdoc on July 17, 2009 at 12:04 PM
I say we spend as much as necessary to keep these horses happy and healthy, but nothing on birth control for them. We could get pretty hungry here in Otopia. And then we can sell them to France.
NellE on July 17, 2009 at 12:01 PM
They shut down the rendering plants in the US. We had one in Texas. Now all those PETA types who thought they knew what was best are finding out that horses are suffering because of it. Some of the horses that were sent there were old and needed to be put down. Now people are abandoning horses because their is no option (that they see, the losers) for an unwanted horse. In some counties you have to pay to have a horse put down and disposed of in a certain way. They do not want the horses buried because of contamination of water supplies! Have animals not been dying on Earth since the beginning of time? We had a colt born early that the mother rejected the vet tried for several days to save it. When it died there was an issue with getting the body back. Well, we won and he buried at the back of the pasture. Government has too much control over our lives.
TXMomof3 on July 17, 2009 at 12:11 PM
This is Horse Sh*t!
People are losing their jobs and Democrats want to spend $700 million on horses!?!?!
TN Mom on July 17, 2009 at 12:17 PM
You’re clearly a city boy.
I live in the country and I own horses (3 are rescue horses). The situation with Wild Mustangs is dire and of all the bad government programs this is not one of them.
Send me an email and I’ll straighten you out.
pabarge on July 17, 2009 at 12:33 PM
I’m shocked this is happening in Texas, where I like to imagine all the sensible people live. I won’t say where I’m from, because we still bury dead livestock, and I don’t want to give any government busybodies any ideas. But we, too, have enough sense to figure out a safe resting place for our animals. Maybe you should drop yours off at City Hall.
NellE on July 17, 2009 at 12:35 PM
heh, exactly what I was gonna say, this is the most appropriate screencap evah!
What now? :P
JetBoy on July 17, 2009 at 12:39 PM
O/T but something to think about.
It’s from Bob Livingston’s Liberty Alert.
eletter@personalliberty.com
Aliens and IOUs
Believers in the coincidence theory of history will have fun with this one. It was 60 years ago this month when witnesses claimed that something fell from the sky and crashed on a ranch outside of Roswell, N.M.
Ever since July 8, 1947, rumors have persisted that the unidentified flying object, or UFO, contained visitors from outer space. Allegedly, their bodies were hidden away by government agents and became the object of various secret experiments.
I scoff at such preposterous allegations, of course. Nevertheless, it gives me pause to realize that nine months later, March 1948, witnessed the births of Barbara Boxer, Bill Clinton, Howard Dean, Al Gore, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Rodham.
Hey, have you got a better explanation?
TruthToBeTold on July 17, 2009 at 12:43 PM
I’m familiar with that program. The government rounds up wild horses and burros and auctions them off. It HAS been successful; why are they messing with what works?
And are there not charities that would help with these horses?
NoLeftTurn on July 17, 2009 at 12:57 PM
Other people’s money.
Jim Treacher on July 17, 2009 at 12:59 PM
Someone is giving payback to the blm I would suggest!I love horses as much as anyone maybe more b/cause I own one but this is outrageous but isn’t everything else they do??You could stay at the computer round the clock emailing our senators about frivolous spending.Right now the best we conservatives can hope for is the moderate dems. wake up!
ohiobabe on July 17, 2009 at 1:11 PM
We have four cats. I demand we get $245 million for each one to study their eating, sleeping, and toilet habits.
madmonkphotog on July 17, 2009 at 1:16 PM
A pussy bailout?
MadisonConservative on July 17, 2009 at 1:18 PM
If herds were left alone, it has been scientifically proven they practice their own type of birth control by reducing breeding in lean years. And when you understand that horses and other animals change their behaviour months in advance of natural events humans don’t anticipate, it is safe to say that horses are the best judge of their fate. (Sorry self important greenie/hippie/empathy weenie.) If the Animal Planet can traumatize a nation of children by letting Flower die in agony on national TV and not ‘meddle’ with an anti-venom shot, then we can let the laws of mother nature take over in BLM (Bureau of Land Management) country too. This will be the only way to stop the sale of horses to slaughter for dog food. This bill is sick.
FeFe on July 17, 2009 at 1:51 PM
Yes! But if you own land near the Mexican border and wise Latinas wander onto your property, the opposite rule is in effect, and you can’t remove them from your land lest you be sued for violating their civil rights.
Buy Danish on July 17, 2009 at 2:09 PM
Screw you and the horse you rode in on, Barry.
dragondrop on July 17, 2009 at 2:22 PM
There’s all kinds of organizations that help. As others have said above, and I agree, it sounds like a huge land grab.
4shoes on July 17, 2009 at 2:27 PM
Is this a great country or what?
Cindy Munford on July 17, 2009 at 2:28 PM
The reason for bureaucrats to perform home inspections before Americans can adopt horses:
Those were BLM Mustangs that died on his ranch.
That is what has to be fought against in the court of public opinion. I can already hear the lefties/greenies/whackos using that as their rallying cry for WHY it has to be done. To save the horses! (Don’t look at the folks who are suffering at the hands of BLM, or what we could do with this money to actually HELP folks.)
Just my humble opinion, but I think we’d all be better off letting the herds manage themselves. If they become too large, cull the herds. Seems to work just fine in every other form of animal husbandry I’ve ever seen.
P2 on July 17, 2009 at 2:33 PM
I worked for the Cibola National Forest back in the 80′s. One of the employees that shared the same office was in charge of wild horses. It turns out that wild horses are rather good at reproducing and annually overpopulated the area they were in. This led to disease and starvation. Also destruction to neighboring cattle land. So, the forest service would round up a bunch of them and sell them to slaughter. I think the meat was used in dog food. They would also round up a bunch and sell them outright at small cost. It turns out that most of these buyers (adopters) were trucking them to Mexico for slaughter…
So, while I understand the idea that dropping hay to the herds in winter, which they already do, laced with birth control might seem odd it actually sounds like a pretty good idea to me.
Back then horse slaughter for meat use was legal in the U.S. I believe it is now illegal.
I would agree with the birth control laced hay and a very strict limit on the number of animals anyone could “adopt” per year, like maybe three. This would preclude the necessity of “home visits” as it wouldn’t make economic sense to truck just three horses to Mexico for profit. I would not include money to increase their range.
I am reminded of the “Sarah Palin shoots defenseless wolves from a helicopter meme.” Wild herds must be controlled. We either do it actively or ignore the suffering these animals will endure if left to starve and die by disease. A lot of people prefer the latter option…
Babs on July 17, 2009 at 2:35 PM
Remember, though, that superfluous stuff that might create jobs and keep us safe, you know like the F22, is on the chopping block costing roughly the same amount of money.
NTropy on July 17, 2009 at 2:40 PM
After Barry told us to “buck up” the correct expression to use is “Buck off” or “Buck you”.
It’s a dream come true.
Buy Danish on July 17, 2009 at 2:40 PM
Seriously, how many opposible thumb jokes can we think of???
2nd Ammendment Mother on July 17, 2009 at 3:06 PM
Let’s rebuild a mounted police force. They can herd volunteers and cut down on gasolene.
And what about school lunch program? Protein is required. Some taco chains could use them.
seven on July 17, 2009 at 5:09 PM
I lived in Vegas for over 20 years and I believe that Nevada currently has the largest Mustang population. I smell a Harry Reid boondoggle here. The adoption program they have now has worked well for years now.
Conservalicious on July 18, 2009 at 12:19 AM
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2