"When I say government spends too much money,
I mean in other people's districts."
Sure is funny how all this "fiscal responsibility" stuff gets drop-kicked from the top of the Rotunda when the crazy sequester hawks are talking about
their own districts:
Tim Huelskamp of Kansas has been one of the most vocal tea-party-backed conservatives in the House, but his calls to shrink the size of government didn’t apply when it came to bringing a new Department of Homeland Security lab to his district.
About $404 million for construction of the lab in Manhattan, Kan., was included in the fiscal 2014 Homeland Security bill (HR 2217) that the House passed this week; Huelskamp and other Kansas Republicans fought back attempts to drop the funding from the bill and keep the veterinary research facility at a site on Long Island, N.Y.
The veterinary lab will be a windfall for his district, which is of course why he's demanding it now as he makes a name for himself elsewhere as one of the most stubborn hard-right conservatives out there; even the Paul Ryan budget wasn't cutty-stabby enough for
him. Now that we're talking about researching literal pork, though, it isn't pork.
All that said, I find it difficult to get too worked up over an actual attempt to bring science to Kansas. As long as the researchers don't get burned as witches by the local population, it probably isn't a bad use of money.