28 February 2009

Jindal vs. the Volcano Monitors

In the Republican response to President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress, Gov. Jindal of Louisana criticized the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

While some of the projects in the bill make sense, their legislation is larded with wasteful spending. It includes $300 million to buy new cars for the government, $8 billion for high-speed rail projects, such as a "magnetic levitation" line from Las Vegas to Disneyland, and $140 million for something called "volcano monitoring."
I will not comment on the other projects he listed, but the attack on volcano monitoring caught the attention of myself and many others, including Mayor Royce Pollard of Vancouver, WA, which is near Mt. St. Helens. I suspect Gov. Jindal would have a difficult time explaining his words to Mayor Pollard, the citizens of Vancouver, or the residents of Pompeii.

2 comments:

Darius said...

I don't see how it belongs in a STIMULUS bill. One could make a case for a spending bill, on the other hand.

Luke C. said...

That is not the case that Jindal made, though. The context of the speech indicates he thought volcano monitoring was inherently wasteful lard and that he did not understand what it is.