Big government may be gone with the wind, but California Congressmen John Doolittle and Robert Matsui are the Scarlett O’Haras of the federal budget.

On February 17, they announced a campaign to revive the boondoggle Auburn Dam despite the fact that Congress already killed it. How can federal taxpayers afford the dam’s $700 million price tag when Congress is trying to balance the budget? Like Scarlett, their only answer seems to be “We’ll worry about that tomorrow.”

The Auburn Dam was killed on September 23, 1992, when an overwhelming, bipartisan majority of the House voted 273-140 for an amendment to block funding for the project. Besides its enormous price tag, cheaper alternatives exist and environmentalists say it’s a disaster.

Starring as Rhett Butler in this farce is Rep. Thomas E. Petri (R-WI), whose position is “Frankly my dear, I don’t want a dam.” It was Petri’s amendment that killed the dam in 1992 and on February 1, 1996 he introduced a bill (HR 2951) to block federal funding for the dam once again.

Repeal the 19th Century

A bill to repeal the hundred-year-old Tea Importation Act of 1897 was approved by the House Ways and Means Committee February 28 and is headed for House consideration soon. Entitled the Tea Taster’s Repeal Act, it was introduced by Reps. Scott Klug (R-WI) and Joseph Kennedy, II (D-MA). If only Congress could finally repeal the 1872 Mining Act…

Quote of the month

“We spent $10 billion on the space station and didn't produce a piece of hardware, but boy did the contractors have fun. It's shameful. It's stealing from the American public.”

–NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin, speech to American Association for the Advancement of Science, Feb. 1996