Last month in Congress, the House overwhelmingly passed "The Great Cats and Rare Canids Act," which would authorized $5 million annually from fiscal 2010 to 2014 to help preserve snow leopards, wild African dogs and other endangered species. Yay, I guess: As Obama says to cut millions, House OKs $50 million for animals.

I only bring this up because of the comments of Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), who griped how federal funds going to China for the protection of rare cats and dogs may actually result in "moo goo dog pan or moo goo cat pan." Here's part of the transcript from C-SPAN:

Again I appreciate the sensitivities with regard to rare cats and dogs around the world. With regard to the previous votes on this bill in the House, to be specific, 227 Democrats voted "aye," 67 Republicans voted "aye," which also was about the same numbers, similar numbers, that voted for the bailout back in September, which was also a huge mistake. There was one Democrat that voted "no" and 118 Republicans that voted "no."

But we are even in different times now. We are still borrowing money from the Chinese. And, once again, the irony here is incredible. We are going to borrow more money from the Chinese to possibly give them money back to create habitats for wild dogs and cats that are rare.

There is no assurance that if we did that we wouldn't end up with moo goo dog pan or moo goo cat pan. There is no way to assure that money will not be wasted when it's sent to foreign countries.

And here's last night's Daily Show's Moment of Zen: Moo Goo Dog Pan. Seriously, Congressman? Come on, Gohmert. Did you really have to go there? Say what you will about how the United States spends its money -- that's your job. But did you really have to get cute and go for the "moo goo dog pan" line? Let me break the news to you: you're not that funny. So keep the Chinese dog/cat-eating jokes out of the Congressional Record. That's racist! (Thanks, Meredith.)