Mr Smith goes to Washington: DeMint rails against pork

Remember that massive wilderness preservation bill Harry Reid's trying to get passed today?

South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint is in the middle of delivering a passionate warning:

"We should not have to pass all of these things that are not needed in order to get those things that are. We know we don't need $5 million for botanical gardens in Hawaii or in Florida. That may be a wonderful thing to do but in these times when we're asking Americans to sacrifice, when we're mortgaging the future of our children by what we're spending today, it doesn't make any sense to put that in a bill so we can get somebody's vote.

We don't need $14 million for tropical research in Panama. Senator Coburn has mentioned it, there are may be other things, but we don't need $12 million for the orchid museum in Maryland. These are all good things but this bill is full of these things. There's nobody that's going to be voting here today that knows all the things that are in here.

(Ea.) Read more.