Larry Warren of ABC News 4 in Salt Lake City reports:
An Iraq spending bill Congress will vote on Thursday has an Eagle Mountain mother angry, but not about war spending. The huge, 124.1 billion dollar appropriation bill also contains billions of dollars in spending that has nothing to do with the war.
“I understand this is the way our legislature works, but I think it’s just sickening,” Michelle Matthews of Eagle Mountain told ABC 4 News. She’s upset because one of the earmarks reimburses California spinach farmers $25 million for losses they suffered.
Some of that spinach found its way to the Matthew’s dinner table. Michelle got sick, but her daughter, Arabella, almost died. Arabella was just two-years-old when she came down with E. coli. She spent nine days at Primary Children’s Hospital, had an operation and was on kidney dialysis.
“To reimburse them for making people ill is just inappropriate,” Mrs. Matthews said. “It’s insane that my tax dollars and the tax dollars of my family are going to pay these spinach farmers for their bad spinach for things that were their fault in the first place.”