Cato Daily Dispatch for November 15, 2001
Pork Spending Despite WarJurors Reject Tobacco Suit
New Budget-Conscious NASA Chief Appointed
Pork Spending Despite War
Last month, lawmakers rejected a proposal to add $131 million to a program that helps Russia keep track of its nuclear stockpile. It's not that they didn't like the idea: After Sept. 11, almost everyone in Congress agrees on the need to do more to stop terrorists from acquiring nuclear bombs. But House and Senate negotiators meeting to decide the final shape of a $24.6 billion spending bill covering the nation's nuclear and water programs could not find room for the increase, according to The Washington Post.
They had other priorities, including:
- A museum at the Atomic Testing History Institute in Las Vegas ($1 million).
- Aquatic-weed removal in the Lavaca and Navidad rivers in Texas ($300,000).
- A study of erosion on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii ($350,000).
Targeting funds for specific projects at the request of individual lawmakers is a time-honored ritual on Capitol Hill, and this year is no exception. But as Congress completes work on 13 annual spending bills, its business-as-usual approach to managing the federal budget is colliding with the new demands of fighting terrorism.
Spending discipline doesn't come naturally to Congress, according to a Cato Commentary by Cato Fiscal Policy Analyst Stephen Slivinski. In "Fiscal Incontinence" he writes that although Congress passed a budget resolution holding this year's federal spending increases to 5 percent, "Congress can even ignore its own rules by stating in its new budget that the rules of the old budget don't apply ... The result is that over the past five fiscal years lawmakers have spent a total of $142 billion above what the budget resolution said they could. And what of those five-year spending caps passed in 1997? Congress pulled the plug on them, too. The budget would be $136 billion smaller this year alone if those caps were still in place."
Jurors Reject Tobacco Suit
Jurors rejected a lawsuit yesterday that sought to force four tobacco companies to pay for annual medical tests for 250,000 healthy West Virginia smokers, according to The Washington Post.
The six-person jury, nearly all of them former smokers, said people with a five-year, pack-a-day habit have an increased risk of disease but do not need medical monitoring.
Jurors also concluded that cigarettes are not a defective product and manufacturers were not negligent in designing, making or selling them.
In "When Theft Masquerades as Law," Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies Robert A. Levy explains government lawsuits against socially unpopular -- but deep-pocketed -- industries including gun manufacturers, HMOs, and tobacco companies. He writes: "When we condone the selective and retroactive application of extraordinary legal principles, intended specifically to transfer resources from disfavored defendants to favored plaintiffs -- or indeed to the public sector -- we substitute political cronyism for fundamental fairness, make a mockery of justice, and trample on our precious liberty."
New Budget-Conscious NASA Chief Appointed
After a long and difficult search for a new NASA administrator, the White House has settled on a veteran management expert and troubleshooter who recently told Congress that the space agency needs a "cultural change," according to The Washington Post.
President Bush announced yesterday that Sean O'Keefe, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, will be nominated to replace Daniel Goldin, who departs Friday after almost 10 years on the job.
If confirmed by the Senate, O'Keefe, a close associate of Vice President Cheney, would take the helm at a particularly difficult moment in the agency's storied history. The agency that sent six spacecraft and a dozen men to the surface of the moon is running out of money as it tries to construct a seven-man space station in low Earth orbit.
In "Time to Privatize NASA," Edward Hudgins writes: "Why are no regularly scheduled commercial spaceflights available for [Senator John] Glenn to book? Because no government agency that runs with the efficiency of the Pentagon and the U.S. Postal Service will ever realize the dream of commercially viable orbiting stations or moon bases."
Earlier this year, the Cato Institute held a one day conference on the commercialization of space and video of the event can be viewed online.
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