| Pigs on the highway Both of South Carolina's U.S. senators - Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint - joined nine of their colleagues in voting against the Senate's $295 billion highway bill. Good for them. And shame on the 89 senators, including Georgia's, who voted for the pork-laden monstrosity. There was enough pork in the House's $284 billion transportation bill to satisfy even the hungriest Washington politicians, but at least that measure kept faith with the Republican-led Congress' budget resolution and the maximum President Bush said he'd allow without vetoing the road bill. As The Wall Street Journal points out, the House bill is plenty generous. It sets a funding record and is $73 billion, or 35 percent, more than the last six-year highway spending bill enacted in 1998. When is enough enough? Yet the Senate bill is $11 billion more expensive. When the two chambers get down to negotiating their differences in conference, the senators must think they can talk their House counterparts into going along with the higher figure. Maybe they can; it wouldn't be the first time. Whenever there's a choice between more pork and a lot more pork, most politicians - regardless of political party - will opt for the latter. Who says there's no bipartisanship on Capitol Hill? But if the Senate bill - or anything higher than the $284 billion House bill - does prevail in conference, the president better make good on his veto threat, or his credibility will be shattered. So far in his presidency, and despite soaring deficits, Bush hasn't vetoed even one bill. That, political observers say, is why the Senate believes it can ignore him. When push comes to shove, senators believe the president is all talk and no bite. He'll sign whatever Congress sends him, so why not send him a highway bill that's $11 billion over the limit he's set? Actually, the nation would probably be better served if there is no highway bill. For the past few years, highway funds have been provided by a continuing resolution based on the formula set by the 1998 bill. If that formula still works, why do we need a new, more expensive one?
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