As reported in the Boston Globe:
Sweeping healthcare legislation working its way through Congress is more than an effort to provide insurance to millions of Americans without coverage. Tucked within is a provision that could provide billions of dollars for walking paths, streetlights, jungle gyms, and even farmers' markets.
It is like making sausage. Disgusting.
This is one area where I just like conservatives and the majority of Americans, be they liberal or conservative, agree. The entire system of piggy-backing un-related projects into this or any bill, is disgusting abuse of thre power they are given.
These financial projects may or may not have merit, (it takes working people to create walks, playgrounds(beneficial to children),lights and etc…) but there are more appropriate settings for these types of projects. Healthcare reform should be ABOUT healthcare reform and the conservatives and democrats that add un-related issues just insure the non-passage of reform. In fact if conservatives were smart, they would bog reform bills down with frivolous spending to ensure its defeat. It is the fastest way to kill legislation after all.
Even worse is the lumping together of related but severable components. The results are compromises that are truly compromising, when most legislation could be improved by taking an Occam’s razor approach.