Peter Roskam posted an Op-Ed on his House web site crying that “it is time for Congress to get its priorities straight”.

What should be Congress’s priorities, you may ask?

• Ending the war against Iraq?
• Ending the Bush Administration’s practice of torture?
• Providing health care for America’s children?
• Providing services for disabled veterans of Bush’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
• Helping middle class parents with the cost of college tuition?
• Taking action to slow global climate change?
• Preventing Bush from provoking a new war against Iran?

No, none of these.

As we have seen in a previous post, Peter Roskam is pretty much in the pocket of the National Association of Manufacturers, a prominent big business special interest group. So much so that he has voted NAM’s position on key votes 100% of the time during his first year in office, ignoring the needs and desires of the constituents who sent him to Washington to be their representative.

Now, as Roskam examines Congressional priorities, he can find nothing more important for Congress to do than to increase the amount of taxpayer dollars being given to manufacturers under the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), a program which “provides companies with services and access to public and private resources that enhance growth, improve productivity, and expand capacity”. So using taxpayer dollars to help businesses become better at business. The program is a pet project of NAM.

So disabled vets and children needing health care should fend for themselves (Roskam has repeatedly voted against spending for both) but manufacturers need a boost from the taxpayer?

This just shows how phony Roskam’s pretensions about conservatism are. Spending tax money is just fine as long as it is spent to help big business. But God forbid you should spend a buck to help a child or a vet.

I used to think Roskam was worthy of respect, despite our political differences. Now, not so much.