Will Earmarks Continue for the Foreseeable Future?
by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Does anyone really expect the Senate to pass the three year moratorium on earmarks? For that matter did anyone ever really believe the effort would muster enough support to clear the high hurdle set for passage by Harry Reid.? A question that also occurred to me is if earmarks are a practice that deserves to be banned for three years would it not stand to reason they ought to banned permanently? So much for cutting wasteful spending.
The fact is most legislatures DO NOT WANT an earmark moratorium any more than they want permanent banning of the "bring home the bacon" rewards program designed to show their constituencies how much they did for them. It's one of the means they are able to employ to "put a feather in their cap" come reelection time.
Further, for those who hold out high hopes the incoming Republithug Congress will do any more than the current Demotheft Congress did to control spending, you are looking through the proverbial rose colored glasses. It is time this nation finally confronts the reality that things are what they are. People all across America, including businesses want their "special interest" valued and to be taken care of taken care of.
There is no way any Congress is going to rein in spending in a meaningful way anytime soon. This would require Congress slash the hugely bloated defense spending budget (the Republithugs ain't gonna let that happen), it also would require Congress slash overreaching social welfare spending and repeal ObamaCare (the Demothefts and more liberal Republithugs ain't gonna allow that), or, as the alternative it will require Congress increase taxes on everybody but the very poor at some point in time just to keep things afloat.
Given the Military Industrial Complex, the huge social welfare programs of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment compensation, and the bloated costs of the United States Government Bureaucracy, {items most people want and seem to expect} the issue of earmarks is but a tiny drop in the huge ocean of government spending. Earmarks account for less than 0.5% of the federal budget. While 0.5% of a projected 1.19 trillion 2010 budget might be significant to you and I, the reality is there are much bigger fish that need frying.
If Congress can't get their act together to pass a moratorium on wasteful earmark spending how is one to believe it will find the bipartisanship required to rein in spending and balanced our federal books?
You can find the article on the doubtful passage of the proposed Earmark Ban here.
As I see it we are in for another two years of more of the same. The election cycles keep bringing in change that looks, in the end, an awful lot like the cycle just before it. Call me a realist, or perhaps just disgusted.
Cross posted to the Left Coast Rebel.
Via: Memeorandum
Rational Nation USA
Does anyone really expect the Senate to pass the three year moratorium on earmarks? For that matter did anyone ever really believe the effort would muster enough support to clear the high hurdle set for passage by Harry Reid.? A question that also occurred to me is if earmarks are a practice that deserves to be banned for three years would it not stand to reason they ought to banned permanently? So much for cutting wasteful spending.
The fact is most legislatures DO NOT WANT an earmark moratorium any more than they want permanent banning of the "bring home the bacon" rewards program designed to show their constituencies how much they did for them. It's one of the means they are able to employ to "put a feather in their cap" come reelection time.
Further, for those who hold out high hopes the incoming Republithug Congress will do any more than the current Demotheft Congress did to control spending, you are looking through the proverbial rose colored glasses. It is time this nation finally confronts the reality that things are what they are. People all across America, including businesses want their "special interest" valued and to be taken care of taken care of.
There is no way any Congress is going to rein in spending in a meaningful way anytime soon. This would require Congress slash the hugely bloated defense spending budget (the Republithugs ain't gonna let that happen), it also would require Congress slash overreaching social welfare spending and repeal ObamaCare (the Demothefts and more liberal Republithugs ain't gonna allow that), or, as the alternative it will require Congress increase taxes on everybody but the very poor at some point in time just to keep things afloat.
Given the Military Industrial Complex, the huge social welfare programs of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment compensation, and the bloated costs of the United States Government Bureaucracy, {items most people want and seem to expect} the issue of earmarks is but a tiny drop in the huge ocean of government spending. Earmarks account for less than 0.5% of the federal budget. While 0.5% of a projected 1.19 trillion 2010 budget might be significant to you and I, the reality is there are much bigger fish that need frying.
If Congress can't get their act together to pass a moratorium on wasteful earmark spending how is one to believe it will find the bipartisanship required to rein in spending and balanced our federal books?
You can find the article on the doubtful passage of the proposed Earmark Ban here.
As I see it we are in for another two years of more of the same. The election cycles keep bringing in change that looks, in the end, an awful lot like the cycle just before it. Call me a realist, or perhaps just disgusted.
Cross posted to the Left Coast Rebel.
Via: Memeorandum
Les,
ReplyDeleteYou said:
"The fact is most legislatures DO NOT WANT an earmark moratorium any more than they want permanent banning of the "bring home the bacon" rewards program designed to show their constituencies how much they did for them. It's one of the means they are able to employ to "put a feather in their cap" come reelection time."
Mark Twain mentioned something along these lines back in March 16, 1876, in a letter he wrote to The Knights of St. Patrick, based out of Hartford, CT. He despised politics, but believed in proper governance. He writes:
"St. Patrick had no politics; his sympathies lay with the right- that was politics enough. When he came across a reptile, he forgot to inquire whether he was a democrat or a republican, but simply exalted his staff and "let him have it". Honored be his name- I wish we had him here to trim us up for the centennial. But that cannot be. His staff, which was the symbol of real, not sham reform, is idle. However, we still have with us the symbol of Truth- George Washington's little hatchet- for I know where they've buried it."
Perhaps it is time to put that little hatchet to work on Congress, be they democrat or republican.
Happy Thanksgiving, Les, to you and yours!
Donald in Bethel, CT
Les,
ReplyDeleteJohn Kyl, one of the real conservatives in the Senate already got the first earmark, just three days after the ban....
http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/11/24/kyl-seeks-big-earmark-three-days-after-gop-earmark-ban/
Besides, Congress has quite a few other ways to get funding for their pet projects.
@TAO,
ReplyDeleteI heard about that on the radio today.
John, *ahem*, you are: Ridiculous. Hypocritical. Cowardly. A self-serving prick. A liar.
Conservative? Hmm. Jury is not convinced, Johnny boy.
Donald in Bethel, CT
@ My friends TAO and Donald - What can I say? Other than you're both right and ole Johny boy should be run out of Congress on a rail. A.long with many others on both sides of the aisle.
ReplyDeleteYes TAO, there ARE other ways for the dishonest crooks in Congress to get their pork. Both the Demothefts and the Republithugs are expert at it.
As we say tis time for a third party.
Anybody game?