I’m heading down to the House floor this evening to offer an amendment to the Commerce Justice and Science fiscal year 2015 appropriations bill. My amendment will bar any funds to go to support a study on the climate effects on tea quality and socioeconomic responses in China and other locations. As described, this study focuses on why and how tea quality is vulnerable to changing climate conditions, especially in China. It is not that this may not be a worthy topic to study, the real question is, should the U.S. taxpayer be forced to pay for the study of a foreign cash crop? It is much more appropriate for the tea industry or the Chinese government to pay for such a study, not the U.S. taxpayer. I am deeply troubled that as our country faces a national deficit of more than $17.5 trillion in debt, the U.S. government is still supporting questionable spending such as the study of foreign tea crops. Although this study does not represent a lot of money, roughly just $1 million, we must start eliminating spending that is not vital to U.S. government operations. This is just such an expenditure. If we cannot make the easy choices to eliminate these kinds of programs, it is obvious that we will not be willing to make the tough choices that are necessary to get our country back on the right fiscal track.
Posted on: Fri, 30 May 2014 02:31:01 +0000
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