PORKY PIGS

"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population." -- Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

The spend-thrift agenda of the far left is about to get a big subsidy from the American people thanks to the trojan horse that is otherwise known as the "stimulus package." The parasites are invading and the host – the American taxpayer – is about to be sucked dry.

Thanks to three Senate Republicans, Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, the far left of the Democrat party has succeeded in putting together a $1 trillion trough full of political patronage. These collaborators put an end to any possibility of a debate on the egregiously pork-laden legislation. Without the ability to filibuster, Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats have no way to address the irresponsible excess that is supposed to save us from the past decade of . . . irresponsible excess.

Much has been said over the past couple weeks about the absurd entitlement programs that will do more to shackle people to the largesse of the state than create economic growth. There’s really nothing more I can add about spending $2 Billion on "neighborhood stabilization programs" like ACORN or $8 Billion to create a railroad between Los Angeles and Harry Reid’s stomping ground, Las Vegas. Need I mention the $30 Million for wetlands conservation in the San Francisco Bay Area, part of Nancy Pelosi's efforts to save the salt marsh harvest mouse?

I'm still looking for the part about stimulating the economy.

I didn't find it in the approximately 450 pages of this stinking piece of trichinosis that are dedicated to creating a Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research. In other words, tax-cheat Tom Daschle’s dream of establishing a federal bureaucracy to dictate treatment options to doctors and their patients is about to become a reality.

Does that sound a bit too apocalyptic? Consider this: "The goal, Daschle’s book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept 'hopeless diagnoses' and ‘forego experimental treatments,’ and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health care system."

Daschle’s Malthusian vision is about to become law. "Stimulus" apparently does not mean re-energizing the economy as much as it means controlling costs by controlling the population.

I wonder if cancer-survivor Specter would have been willing to lower his expectations after his own hopeless diagnosis if it meant he could save the salt marsh harvest mouse.