Uh, yeah

This is a great example of government waste. Part of a $1.1 TRILLION dollar spending bill, about 9% of the national debt, includes a $1 million earmark to build a center to be used to train health care workers. In justifying this expenditure, Senator Mikulski claims that we are facing a "serious shortage in health care workers". At the same time, the president of Howard County Community College claims that enrollment in health care classes has been "skyrocketing". I realize all of this is anecdotal and none of these people probably have any idea what they are talking about, but if true this seems like an example of the market working. New trainees are preparing to meet increased demand (or replacing a dwindling supply or whatever). I'm not sure why it is necessary for the government to intervene here based on the justification given.

It seems obvious to me that Mikulski and Cardin are just spending money on crap to make certain people happy, and offering lame rationalizations to support these expenditures. I know $1 million isn't much of a trillion dollar bill, but a million dollars here and a million dollars there soon adds up to real money. It's clearly too much to ask United States Senators to actually have a meaningful debate on anything. They'd much rather play Santa Claus with other people's money.