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Congress cuts S.E.C. budget

Monday, November 24, 2003 | 07:01 PM

"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself:"

Despite the ever widening scandals, the yawning chasm between NYAG Eliot Spitzer's effectiveness and that of the underfunded, understaffed, and moraleless S.E.C., our brain trust in Washington has decided to cut funding for enforcement:

"WASHINGTON -- House and Senate Republicans, negotiating an $821 billion-plus year-end spending package, have taken a decidedly pro-business slant to help pick up conservative support after Thanksgiving, when the leadership hopes to win final passage . . .

And amid the growing mutual-fund scandal, the Securities and Exchange Commission, which enjoys bipartisan support, will lose a third of the $96 million budget increase it expected until recently. The decision surprised Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D., Md.), who sponsored corporate-reform legislation in the last Congress that committed the body to a steady increase in funds for the SEC. "Once you push back, you lose the momentum," Mr. Sarbanes said."

Seriously, how unconscionably clueless do you need to be to think the S.E.C. is overfunded? It's simply frightening that we are governed by these clueless morons (of both parties).

I am now officially depressed.

Source:
Omnibus Spending Plan Packs Business Perks
House and Senate Leaders Seek Conservative Support For $821 Billion Package
By David Rogers
Wall Street Journal, November 24, 2003
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106963342827726900,00.html

Alarms Sounded On Cost of GOP Bills
Lawmakers Increase Spending to Win Votes
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer, November 24, 2003; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A8763-2003Nov23?language=printer

Mark Twain
http://www.twainquotes.com/index.html

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