Taxpayers: Kiss another $1.5 billion of your money "goodbye"? (Or, more stenches from the trenches.)

After a House conference on energy was concluded and legislation closed to further amendment a funny thing happened. Somebody slipped in an additional $1.5 billion of our tax dollars!

This leaves me wondering who can just slip in $1.5 billion anonymously? Shouldn't the responsible party put their name on the deed so we can give 'em proper "credit"? Or maybe they'd be too ashamed to be the source of such stench?

Representative Henry Waxman (D., CA) notes that 75% of this money will be administered by a private consortium in the district of a representative name of Tom DeLay. Hmmm, anyone ever heard of this guy? Halliburton sits on the board of this consortium and $100 million has been allocated for 'administrative expenses.'

Representative Waxman goes on to protest this action in a letter to the speaker of the House, Rep. Dennis Hastert, in which he states:

"...the Energy Conference Report that raises serious procedural and substantive concerns. At its essence, this provision is a $1.5 billion giveaway to the oil industry, Halliburton, and Sugar Land, Texas. The provision was inserted into the energy legislation after the conference was closed, so members of the conference committee had no opportunity to consider or reject this measure.

"The provision establishes a $1.5 billion fund......which is not subject to the normal congressional appropriations process. It appears that the $1.5 billion fund created.... can in fact be used for many oil and gas projects..... including.....'innovative exploration and production techniques' or 'enhanced recovery techniques', lavish birthday parties on yachts for arm candy wives and hediously expensive shower curtains."

Okay, okay. That's not exactly what Waxman's letter said. I enhanced that last part a bit by trying to state the unstated.

Waxmen wonders if Speaker Hastert is going to permit this Energy Conference Report to be brought to the House with this $1.5 billion slab of pork inserted by "anonymous"? Probably. Deleting it would hint of checks and balances, something that's been dead for a couple years now.

Fret not. It's what Americans want. Well, if not exactly what we want, it's what we Americans deserve.