Posted on 02/21/2012 1:05:48 PM PST by matt04
Hoping to stir public outrage against a rival, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are brawling over who is responsible for the most "earmarks," special projects inserted into spending bills.
While the presidential hopefuls portray earmarks as a corrupting influence on politics and a waste of taxpayer funds, Connecticut lawmakers, among others, are taking a different view.
Rep. John Larson, D-1st District, calls earmarks "the most misunderstood thing in Congress."
"There's a difference between a 'bridge to nowhere' and funding for the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum," he said.
The "bridge to nowhere" was a project in a remote corner of Alaska that cost taxpayers millions and benefited just a handful of people. During the 2008 campaign, it became a symbol of waste and corruption and helped put an end to earmarks, at least temporarily.
The House and Senate established a two-year moratorium on these special projects in 2011. But next year, unless that moratorium is extended, lawmakers can once again seek money for pet projects.
...
Attempts to extend the moratorium earlier this month were firmly voted down in the Senate. Connecticut Sens. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, and Joseph Lieberman, an independent, voted with the majority that rejected an extension of the ban.
Connecticut lawmakers, as with those in other states, steered hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks to the state before the practice was suspended.
Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, sought millions of dollars to help Connecticut's defense industry and the submarine base in Groton. In 2010, Courtney secured $4.4 million for a dry deck for the Electric Boat Corp., $4 million for a turbine engine program at Pratt & Whitney and $5.6 million for an MK-48 torpedo magazine for the sub base.
(Excerpt) Read more at ctmirror.org ...
"There's a difference between a 'bridge to nowhere' and funding for the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum," he said.
Exactly! And that difference is: the 'bridge to nowhere' was in some district represented by some republican congress-critter from some OTHER state, while the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum is in HIS district...
No, you should be representing the ATHENEUM's BOARD and they should give you a reason why taxpayers from Florida, Hawaii or Texas should PAY for something the board wants. If the board of Wadsworth (which is a great Museum BTW) wants some money ask the TAXPAYERS of Connecticut (with the LIBERALS in Hartford running the show they should get what they want) to PAY for it!!
When everyone in congress is bringing home federal dollars to their districts, it’s very hard to tell your constituents that they aren’t going to get any. Actually, Sarah Palin did that when she was governor of Alaska, voluntarily giving up federal funds she could have gotten. But she’s one of a very few.
It’s not going to happen unless there is a real revolution, and everyone agrees, or is made to agree, that if their states want money, then they should draw on state taxes.
If you cut federal taxes by large amounts for all these handouts, then the states can decide what they want to do within their borders. And if a state goes insane over taxing, then people can move elsewhere.
If the Wadworth Atheneum Museum needs funding, then let the state, the county, the city, or local donors pay for it.
When everyone in congress is bringing home federal dollars to their districts, it’s very hard to tell your constituents that they aren’t going to get any. Actually, Sarah Palin did that when she was governor of Alaska, voluntarily giving up federal funds she could have gotten. But she’s one of a very few.
It’s not going to happen unless there is a real revolution, and everyone agrees, or is made to agree, that if their states want money, then they should draw on state taxes.
If you cut federal taxes by large amounts for all these handouts, then the states can decide what they want to do within their borders. And if a state goes insane over taxing, then people can move elsewhere.
If the Wadworth Atheneum Museum needs funding, then let the state, the county, the city, or local donors pay for it.
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