Providence Holy Cross Medical Center Tattoo Removal Program to Get $200K in Earmarks from $787B Stimulus Bill

Photo: Ron Tarver/Philadelphia Inquirer

Did we really need an earmark for tattoo removal? This is really crazy and I am very disappointed that as we grapple with the effects of this economic quagmire, Congress could seek to justify appropriating $200,000 of the $410 billion spending bill it is sending to President Obama for a small California program that helps people get their unstained skin back. You have got to be kidding me!

According to experts, the average cost is $50 per square inch per treatment. Tattoos can be large, and it might take five to eight laser treatments to remove a black and white tattoo; color tattoos may require up to 12 treatments. Also, a lot of people who want to get rid of their tattoos might have several of them. McClatchy DC Bureau

Who cares? You shouldn't have had the tattoo put on in the first place. It is a colossal waste of money and it speaks to personal responsibility. You paid to put the tattoo on you, then you ought to pay to get it removed from your body. These pet projects that the congressional leaders have are a disgrace and President Obama needs to put his foot down and veto this stuff.

This year's twist, a fight over a tattoo-removal program that operates in a small clinic in North Hollywood, Calif., is prompted by California Democratic Rep. Howard Berman, the chief sponsor of the earmark. He said that the program, which is run by the Providence Holy Cross Medical Center, wasn't pork. "It's priceless," Berman said.

Since a nun opened the clinic in 1998, the program has helped nearly 12,000 clients remove their tattoos. Physicians donate their time every Saturday, the only day of the week that the clinic is open. Most of the program's funding comes from grants.

Dimitrios Alexiou, who ran the program for more than five years and now volunteers at the clinic, said the average age of clients was 30 and that most of them were in the job market and needed help getting their skin cleaned up. Source: McClatchy DC Bureau

The free spending ways of Congress needs to be nipped in the bud once and for all. The new spending bill comes on the heels of a $787 billion economic-stimulus plan that Congress approved just last month. Yes, and Nancy Pelosi, who has been itching to travel by military plane where ever she goes, has hinted at more stimulus money being a real possibility.

Here is a long list of questionable items that will be funded under the new bill: $1.9 million for the Pleasure Beach water taxi service in Connecticut, $300,000 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of John Brown's raid on the arsenal at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia and $238,000 for the Polynesian Voyaging Society of Honolulu, which runs sea voyages in ancient-style sailing canoes. Source: McClatchy DC Bureau.

The sooner the powers that be realize that the United States is in an economic tailspin and on the verge of bankrupting everything we ever stood for in the world, the quicker they would realize that these porkulus items need to be vetoed by the President. Sorry, Nancy Pelosi & Co., shame on you!