Tom DeLay is WRONG: Big Wrong

Copied, in part, from The Corner:

Tom DeLay...said that government has been "pared. . . down pretty good" and that nobody has been able to identify any spending cuts to make in exchange for Katrina-related spending. Brian Riedl of the Heritage Foundation emailed me a long list of evidence that DeLay is wrong.

• The federal government cannot account for $24.5 billion spent in 2003.
• A White House review of just a sample of the federal budget identified $90 billion spent on programs deemed that were either ineffective, marginally adequate, or operating under a flawed purpose or design.
• The Congressional Budget Office published a “Budget Options” book identifying $140 billion in potential spending cuts.
• The federal government spends $23 billion annually on...projects such as grants to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, or funds to combat teenage “goth” culture in Blue Springs, Missouri.
• The Advanced Technology Program spends $150 million annually subsidizing private businesses, and 40% of this goes to Fortune 500 companies.
• The Defense Department wasted $100 million on unused flight tickets, and never bothered to collect refunds even though the tickets were reimbursable.
• The Conservation Reserve program pays farmers $2 billion annually to not farm their land.
• Washington spends $60 billion annually on corporate welfare, versus $43 billion on homeland security.

Of course, DeLay's comments are laying the groundwork for spending a $Gazillion on "rebuilding New Orleans"--and as the wet-panted Governorette of the State of Corruption has promised, it will ALL be Federal (read Other Taxpayers') Money.

Denny Hastert, not notorious for principled stands, ought to speak up again--rebuilding cities under sea-level is not exactly bright, although it certainly comports with the rationale demonstrated above.