Should he have been? Even a Kosovo hawk like John McCain complained that "most of the pork spending in this bill comes straight out of the Social Security trust fund," and arch-conservative Phil Gramm moaned that GOPers "say we want to lock up the money from Social Security, and then we sit idly by and watch it be spent." But TIME White House correspondent Jay Branegan says that Clinton asked for the money for the troops, and there's no way he was going to be seen sending this check back. "He probably doesn't consider this version bad enough to take a chance," he says. "Most of the most objectionable parts were weeded out in the House." The support-the-boys rationale was happily echoed by the bill's chief author, Senate Appropriations Committee chairman Ted Stevens of Alaska. He said opposing the measure "would send the wrong message for the young men and women who represent this country in uniform." Not to mention those reindeer farmers back home.
The Bombs Are Paid for -- With Plenty o' Pork
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Well, the bombs are paid for again. The Senate dropped the Kosovo emergency funding bill on the President's desk Friday after passing the measure by a 64-36 vote on Thursday evening -- and the President signed it later in the day. The bill, which started as a $6 billion request from Clinton, quickly swelled to $15 billion in the House after Republicans indulged in $6 billion worth of one-upsmanship (not soft on defense, they!), some long-delayed hurricane-relief funds for Central America, and a good helping of plain old pork. But add-ons like subsidies for Alaska reindeer farmers, election-monitoring money for elections in East Timor, and an additional $333,000 a year for Tom DeLay's and Dick Gephardt's office expenses weren't enough to scare Clinton off.