When a participant goes on the popular Learning Channel show Trading Spaces, they have two days to redesign a room in the home of a friend or family member. They must remain under budget throughout the process. Conversely, when FEMA decides to remodel, it tends to extend projects indefinitely and ignore budget limitations. Nonetheless, fans of the home improvement show might still enjoy FEMA’s project along the Gulf Coast.
College Town Poverty – Ramen Noodles AGAIN?
It’s an early afternoon on a crisp fall day in an average college town. In preparation for the game, young professionals are piling into local bars and restaurants to see their alma mater play. The late risers are lining up at the numerous downtown coffee shops to inject some caffeine prior to kickoff. After the game, there are more festivities – food, drinks, and celebration.
Nothing seems out of the ordinary, until one learns that the federal government occasionally labels such towns as among the poorest in the country. This backwards fact is made possible by the government’s formula that determines distribution of anti-poverty funds.
Taxpayers Get Railroaded
In an emergency supplemental appropriations bill designed to provide $92 billion for the war on terror and hurricane relief, Mississippi Senators Trent Lott (R) and Thad Cochran (R) added $700 million to relocate newly repaired railroad tracks. The costly pork barrel project has been jammed into an already bloated bill which currently sits at $106.5 billion, or $14.5 billion above the $92 billion version passed by the House last month, which met the President’s request.