The plan proposed by U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) to “de-fund the military’s NASCAR sponsorships appears to have gone down in defeat” Thursday evening on the House floor, according to Kevin Diaz of the Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE. A recorded tally is “still pending, but a preliminary voice vote was ruled by the chair to have been carried by the ‘noes’” (STARTRIBUNE.com, 2/17). But in Norfolk, Dustin Long reports McCollum is “pressing forward with the amendment.” The website for the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives noted McCollum “demanded a recorded vote and the Chair postponed further proceedings on the question of adoption of the amendment until a time to be announced" (Norfolk VIRGINIAN-PILOT, 2/18). USA TODAY’s Michael Hiestand writes when the “national debt gets to more than $14.1 trillion, you need to make some tough government spending cuts,” or at least “start with easy ones like cutting the Defense Department’s spending on NASCAR.” Hiestand writes, “An all-volunteer military needs recruits ... but logos and sponsorships aren’t the way to go.” But USA TODAY’s Michael McCarthy writes NASCAR is the “perfect place to recruit patriotic men and women looking to serve their country.” McCarthy: “There’s an old saying: I know half of my advertising is wasted. I just don’t know which half. Well, can you think of a better place for the Army to advertise than NASCAR and sports programming in general?” (USA TODAY, 2/18).
