Nice to See Where My Money Is Going

From the Jan 30, 2009 Daily Mail on line (www.dailymail.co.uk) blog of reporter Mary Ellen Synon.

"The Democrats: packing the pork barrel with fish.

Washington Democrat pork-barrel, how its done: this just in to me from an former Senate staff member. If you want about a couple of hundred other examples of this kind of thing -- 'pork barrel' is legislation designed to pay off or buy up political supporters -- just go through Obama's so-called stimulus Bill, which the House Democrats passed on Wednesday. It is almost 90 percent pork, and not much stimulus. For details, see my piece on Obama on the Mail's Online Debate page.

So, the example of how this is done on the Hill. The wildly-powerful Speaker of the House is the Democrat Nancy Pelosi. Her home district -- that is, constituency -- includes San Francisco. The headquarters of the Star-Kist tuna brand, owned by the global giant Del Monte Foods, are in San Francisco.

Star-Kist is a major political contributor to Pelosi.

Star-Kist is the leading employer in American Samoa, employing 75 percent of the Samoan workforce. According to the Washington Times, the company has two packing plants there with 5,000 workers. More, Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul holds a substantial amount of Star-Kist stock. The guess last year was $17m (£12m) worth.

In January 2007, when Congressional legislation increased the US minimum wage from $5.15 (£3.60) an hour to $7.25 (£5.10), Pelosi had American Samoa exempted from the increase -- making it the only US territory not subject to federal minimum wage laws. This insured that that Del Monte would not have to pay the higher wage -- so Del Monte products would be less expensive that those of their competitors.

Now Pelosi has added an 'earmark' to one of the Democrat bail-out bills adding $33m for an 'economic development credit in American Samoa.'

The frequently-disgraceful Republicans refused, to a man, to vote for Obama's so-called stimulus bill, just because it was loaded with this kind of thing. Which shows that the Republicans can occasionally find their spine."

OoooKaaaayyyyyy-let some of you arguing for higher minimum wages opine how this was good to exempt American Samoa? Tell me how carving them out helps them, helps me, helps the country. And Pelosi supporters, tell me how it is merely a coincidence that substantial portion of the Pelosi family net worth is being benefited by this action.

C'mon? JB, maybe you?