Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Thad Cochran: 'I Think Earmarks Have Gotten A Bad Name'
breitbart.com ^ | 5/13/14 | Matthew Boyle

Posted on 05/13/2014 11:49:50 AM PDT by cotton1706

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) suggested to National Public Radio (NPR) he would like to bring earmarks back to Congress.

“I think earmarks have gotten a bad name,” Cochran told the national radio outlet for a piece it published on the race between Cochran and state Sen. Chris McDaniel for the GOP nomination for the seat.

Cochran said if Congress isn’t allow to earmark spending, then federal agencies have more authority over how to spend the money. "For those who are opposed to that [earmarks], [they] are for the federal agencies making the decision [where money is spent],“ Cochran said, adding, “This is supposed to be government of and by and for the people — not for the bureaucrats,” Cochran said.

Speaker John Boehner just reiterated his opposition to earmarks Monday, and House Republican Leadership is firmly opposed to the idea. After a struggle, even Sen. Mitch McConnell, a longtime member of the appropriations committee, supported banning earmarks in 2010.

“Banning earmarks is another small but important symbolic step we can take to show that we're serious, another step on the way to serious and sustained cuts in spending and to the debt,” McConnell said when he backed the ban in November 2010.

Earmarks are provisions in spending bills requiring federal agencies to spend money on specific local projects. They became controversial because many of the projects were seen as wasteful and parochial, and earmarks came to be used as leverage to "buy" votes on difficult bills.

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: elections
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last
Maybe the Thad Cochran Research Park has been given a bad name, or the Thad Cochran Marine Aquaculture Center, or the Thad Cochran Southern Horticultural Laboratory, etc.

These politicians LOVE earmarks because they're payoffs for votes. And once the earmarks dry up, they're in danger of getting thrown out of office.

Earmarks are how you stay a senator from 1978 to present.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/02/19/Monument-Man-Thad-Cochran-s-Unbelievable-Skill-In-Having-Federally-Funded-Buildings-Named-After-Him

1 posted on 05/13/2014 11:49:50 AM PDT by cotton1706
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: cotton1706

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/02/19/Monument-Man-Thad-Cochran-s-Unbelievable-Skill-In-Having-Federally-Funded-Buildings-Named-After-Him


2 posted on 05/13/2014 11:50:05 AM PDT by cotton1706 (ThisRepublic.net)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cotton1706

Time to flush this turd.


3 posted on 05/13/2014 11:51:14 AM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

"The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision
of what is before them, glory and danger alike,
and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it."

~Thucydides




Please support Free Republic
click the pic


4 posted on 05/13/2014 11:52:09 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cotton1706

I would like to suggest that Sen. Thad Cochran is not a Conservative.


5 posted on 05/13/2014 11:57:15 AM PDT by Ben Mugged (The number one enemy of liberalism is reality.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cotton1706

“Earmarks are provisions in spending bills requiring federal agencies to spend money on specific local projects. They became controversial because many of the projects were seen as wasteful and parochial, and earmarks came to be used as leverage to “buy” votes on difficult bills.”

That pretty much sums it up. In theory, earmarks are a necessary means of allocating funds. In practice, it’s often constituent pork (or in Robert Byrd’s case, endless tributes to one’s own sense of greatness), and/or vote buying.

Of course, all the earmarks combined amount to peanuts compared to “stimulus” bills, “ACA doctor medicare fixes” and the like.


6 posted on 05/13/2014 11:58:02 AM PDT by DemforBush (A repo man is always intense.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cotton1706

Cochran’s never met an earmark he didn’t like, obviously. How do you think politicians retire as millionaire/billionaires after their political “career”? Disgusting.


7 posted on 05/13/2014 11:59:25 AM PDT by Jane Long (While Marxists continue the fundamental transformation of the USA, progressive RINOs assist!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

Thad Cochran, the GOP analog of Sheets Byrd. But then any Congressman or Senator who’s been in office for more than a term. probably fits the description as well.


8 posted on 05/13/2014 12:01:10 PM PDT by vette6387
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Jane Long

wow. Does he think pork and government waste shouldn’t have bad names either?


9 posted on 05/13/2014 12:01:10 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: cotton1706

‘I Think Earmarks Have Gotten A Bad Name’


Yeah. So have muslims and Nazis and the Spanish inquisition.


10 posted on 05/13/2014 12:01:16 PM PDT by cuban leaf
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cotton1706

This issue doesn’t excite me. Spending is spending whether a congressman earmarks it directly or a bureaucrat decides where it goes.


11 posted on 05/13/2014 12:02:56 PM PDT by DManA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cotton1706

Maybe someone could come up with a song titled “Sympathe for Earmarks”, sung to the tune of “Sympathy for the Devil”.


12 posted on 05/13/2014 12:03:15 PM PDT by cuban leaf
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: GeronL

It’s just a renaming...kind of like going from Globull Warming to the kinder, gentler “Climate Change”.


13 posted on 05/13/2014 12:05:18 PM PDT by Jane Long (While Marxists continue the fundamental transformation of the USA, progressive RINOs assist!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: cotton1706

40 years in the senate isn’t enough? retire this socialist, and let him live out the rest of his days living with his assistant


14 posted on 05/13/2014 12:06:37 PM PDT by ghost of stonewall jackson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cotton1706
“I think earmarks have gotten a bad name,”

Ya think?

15 posted on 05/13/2014 12:10:37 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Obama's smidgens are coming home to roost.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ben Mugged

“I would like to suggest that Sen. Thad Cochran is not a Conservative.”

D’ya think??

Cochran (MS) - 06/03/14 - 54% (Average) - 57% (Heritage) - 56% (CFG) - 60% (ACU) - 41% (FreedomWorks)


16 posted on 05/13/2014 12:11:19 PM PDT by cotton1706 (ThisRepublic.net)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: cotton1706

Government exists to safeguard our liberties, Thad, you moron.


17 posted on 05/13/2014 12:20:27 PM PDT by andyk (I have sworn...eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cotton1706
Thad Cochran: 'I Think Earmarks Have Gotten A Bad Name'

As a grammar exercise, let's change this sentence from the passive voice to the active voice.

I think Congress's corrupt behavior has given earmarks a bad name.

Hmm. Vastly more accurate and revealing.

18 posted on 05/13/2014 12:25:46 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (Republican amnesty supporters don't care whether their own homes are called mansions or haciendas.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: cuban leaf
Yeah. So have muslims and Nazis and the Spanish inquisition.

Oh, no! Not the Comfy Chair!

19 posted on 05/13/2014 12:27:43 PM PDT by justlurking (tagline removed, as demanded by Admin Moderator)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: justlurking

Poke him with the SOFT CUSHIONS!


20 posted on 05/13/2014 12:29:30 PM PDT by cuban leaf
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-26 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson