Fighting to Preserve Liberty in America
Tim Bishop is in a tough spot. He can’t rely on earmarks to get himself reelected, those have been banned. He has a reputation of strong constituent service but if you peel back that onion you will see that the service is based on helping folks deal with the massive regulatory programs he typically votes for. Run on his record? His record consists of voting with Nancy Pelosi 97% of the time; in return the leadership gave him his share of pork to pass around and “buy” votes.
The newly elected majority in the House of Representatives has an opportunity to prove that what they campaigned on was not just talk. In the next week or so the Republicans will choose their committee chairman. We will have the opportunity to see if the Republican old bulls lead the party back to the same old, same old, or if the young bulls lead the charge to change.
The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money – Unknown (often attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville)
That, in my mind, pretty much sums up earmarks. It is a way for Congress to bribe the public with the public’s money. As Tip O’Neill once said, “all politics is local,” and the way it is made local is that the members of Congress get money from the Treasury, put there by their constituents (the public) to show what a great job the member is doing at bringing home the bacon (bribe).
American Citizen Learning of the Latest Spending Bill
How does one find the words to describe the complete and utter disconnect between the American people and their so-called representatives in Washington? Mere days after passing an enormous $800 billion spending bill, Congress fires up another $400 billion worth of spending as a follow-on. To their credit, at least this time they didn’t try to hide the 9,000 earmarks of pork in the bill.
Open Bar
"I think I'll have a double earmark"
It seems as if someone just shouted “Open Bar” and the members of Congress are trying wrap their sweaty fists around as many drinks as they can carry. They slam down the libations, and then head back to the bar for more. The frenzy is out of control. As any drunk knows, the first thing that you lose when you start drinking is your inhibition to drink more.
This new spending bill includes an increase in 8% in spending over last year. There is currently no inflation. ZERO. Prices are actually falling. So any sober person would think that if you spent the same amount this year as last, you could buy more just because of lower prices. So while every American is trying mightily to make ends meet, Congress is spending our money like drunken sailors. Since she probably knew what was in the bill on Tuesday night, it explains why Nancy Pelosi kept popping out of her chair like a crazed jack-in-the-box during President Obama’s speech. I thought maybe she sat on a tack, but in reality she couldn’t control her glee at being able to spend our money without any adult Republicans around to say, “NO, bad girl!”
Can Two Years of Unbridled Damage Be Rolled Back?
The only question seems to be just how much damage can they do in two years before Americans go back to the polls? Can the damage be undone? Or are there enough members of Congress who still want to be there after 2010 so that they might start listening to the people who sent them there when they say, “Knock it off!”
