[pgyanke]

"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."

-- James Madison

[DannyTN]

disease cures are not mere “objects of benevolence”.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Can't imagine James Madison would be caught saying this: "And a president who will tell you the truth is that we have to look across the board and do what we can and what we should based upon the severity of the problem and the chances that our research money will do some good in these areas.”

Because I can't find the article of the Constitution which grants the right of Congress to take my money and use it to fund research to help other people with their problems, even if it IS based on the "chances it will do some good".

Everybody who calls for pork spending contends that the spending will do someone some good. Nobody SAYS they are just spending money to buy votes.

My candidate isn't any better on this one, so this isn't a "don't vote for him" post. I'm just dissappointed that so many people who have rightly praised Fred Thompson for his limited-government positions would be claiming that his answer was 100% right, when he said we should spend money on research based on whether it would do some good, rather than based on whether it's a job that was assigned to the government by the Constitution.