Reason #1,500,946 Why I Hate Politics: Pork

From Glenn Beck's Real Story:

Last week I told you that our soldiers' lives are for sale in Washington and today, the Real Story is that we've finally found out the price: $9.9 billion dollars. That's the amount of, quote, "non-military spending" -- translation: PORK -- included in the House emergency war appropriations bill; a bill that also sets an August 31, 2008 deadline for withdrawing troops from Iraq...a date that is coincidentally just 10 weeks before the presidential election.

I want to explain to you why this is such a big deal and I think the best way to do that is by putting you in the position of a politician who's actually trying to do the right thing. Pretend, for just a second, that you're Republican Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave and you're 100 percent against setting a deadline for withdrawing our troops. Last week, the emergency spending bill is released and you notice that it happens to include $3.7 billion dollars in agricultural assistance for ranchers; aid that your Colorado farmers have been begging you for.

It's your ranchers or our soldiers...you can't have both: what do you do?

Now you're Republican Congressman Charles Boustany and you're against the troop withdrawal as well. For years you've been lobbying for money to help your Louisiana rice farmers hold the saltwater back from destroying their crops....and for years you've been told: "no." Then, last week, out of the blue, $15 million dollars suddenly fell right into your lap; if only you'd vote for the war spending bill.

It's your rice farmers or our soldiers...you can't have both: what do you do?

This is disgusting, yet it happens all the time. What do ranchers and rice farmers have to do with military spending? Cut the freaking pork! Can we please discuss issues one at a time? Can we talk about funding the war first and then talk about the needs of rancher, rice farmers, and others afterwards? Or even vice versa - I don't really care about the order.