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  North to Alaska [Don Young]
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Last EditedDFWDem  Jul 18, 2007 03:27pm
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News DateWednesday, July 18, 2007 09:25:00 PM UTC0:0
DescriptionRep. Don Young attacked his fellow Republicans on the House floor Wednesday, as he defended education funds allocated to his home-state of Alaska.

"It's my money," Young stridently declared before warning conservatives that, "Those who bite me will be bitten back."

Young took extreme exception to an amendment by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) to strike money in a spending bill for native Alaskan and Hawaiian educational programs.

Conservatives have stoked the ire of their fellow Republicans for years by challenging federal spending, both broadly and on specific projects. But it's rare that their GOP colleagues express that displeasure openly on the floor.

During his brief tirade Wednesday, Young suggested Republicans lost their majority because Garrett, whom he did not specifically name, and others had challenged spending during the GOP's tenure. He also had disparaging things to say about the great state of New Jersey - home to The Sopranos, Bon Jovi and the eye-opening website NJGuido.com.

And lest we forget, Young, who used to chair the House Transportation Committee, is responsible for the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere," a proposed span connecting Ketchikan, Alaska, with the tiny island of Gravina that would have cost $315 million – and eventually came to symbolize profligate spending under Republican rule.

Garrett refrained from asking for an official reprimand, but he and other conservative Republicans took after Young's declaration that the funds in question represented his money. The assembled conservatives then launched into a general attack on earmarked spending.

"We legally steal," argued Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), defending her colleague from New Jersey.

Members of the conservative Republican Study Committee gave Garrett a standing ovation later in the day during the group's weekly meeting.
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