"Porkulus" Had a Different Meaning Back Then

Senator Susan Collins is reviled on the right these days for helping to get the stimulus bill passed.

Now she is being used as the whipping boy of the left for what she got in return for that vote: in part, scaling back "pandemic-flu preparedness." See, we have a possible pandemic flu on our hands, and she killed preparedness for it!

Here's the problem, though: no one has been able to show what "pandemic-flu preparedness" has to do with a stimulus package.

I am not saying the flu cannot hurt our economy. Of course it does. But preparing for it does not stimulate the economy. Lots of things threaten our economy, but that doesn't make them stimulus. Why not let it go through the normal appropriations process?

By this broad definition of "stimulus," why bother having a budget at all? Just go from year to year with stimulus bills instead.

The left did the same thing with Governor Bobby Jindal and volcanos. He was not saying volcano research should not be funded; he was saying it should not have been in a stimulus bill.

Why is this so hard?