by Joanna
Did you know that sponsoring NASCAR teams is part of the defense budget of the United States? Yes, crazy but true. A Minnesota Democrat recently proposed an amendment that would prohibit the Pentagon from sponsoring NASCAR teams. Since $60 million needed to be cut from the budget for the current fiscal year, ending the practice of sponsoring a racing team should have been a no brainer right? Nope... her amendment failed. Despite the fact that McCollum received angry phone calls from NASCAR fans she is determined to continue the fight to end the sponsorship deals.
Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) started it when she offered up an amendment to the federal spending bill calling on the Army stop spending millions of dollars to splash its logo all over, among other things, the Sprint Cup car driven by Ryan Newman....
...McCollum is taking a hard line against NASCAR, calling on the Pentagon to cease spending taxpayer funds to sponsor Newman's #39 Chevy Impala. Other branches of the military ended their sponsorship of Sprint Cup cars -- a sponsorship that comes with a hefty pricetag -- years ago. But, as the National Journal reports, the Army is still at it, dropping $7 million in racing sponsorship money on the sport last year.
The Congresswoman's staff told the magazine they could find no benefit to the Army from the deal.
"Who is in Iraq or Afghanistan because they saw an Army car go around the track?" McCollum's chief of staff said. "We're in a fiscal crisis. There's an amendment on the floor to eliminate all funding for homeless veterans. How is it more important to fund race cars than to help the men and women who served our country?" SOURCE
