Tea Party’s “spending” blindness: How dumb bias is killing Thad Cochran’s hard sell

salon.com ^ | 6/19/14 | Jim Newell

[cotton1706]

The talk of the town in the bizarre Mississippi GOP Senate primary — which now, for what it’s worth, involves a character named James “Scooby Doo” Warren – is why Thad Cochran’s appeals to seniority and pork and his standing on the appropriations committee aren’t quite appealing enough. Mississippi receives the largest return on tax dollars sent to Washington, of all states, and it’s not unreasonable to suggest, as Cochran has been doing, that without him, procurement of said funds may prove to be more difficult. Especially when he has an opponent, in state Sen. Chris McDaniel, who actively rejects the sort of “spending” that Cochran does on behalf of the state.

“Spending.” It’s a powerful attack word in Republican politics. Washington does too much “spending,” therefore the people in Washington need to be ousted. That’s about all a Tea Party challenger needs to say and all a Tea Party voter needs to hear; further explanation of what this “spending” is need not be explained, because no one is listening.

We here at Salon have been nursing a little theory about why Cochran’s appeals to all the federal cash he brings home haven’t been working over the crowds. We’re afraid it’s more cynical than the Tea Party-preferred explanation that their values, and their virtuous, thrifty natures, prevent them from accepting this dirty money. Or that “crony capitalism” and the Export-Import Bank is really what grinds their gears about Washington. What if it’s just that they don’t think they’re getting any benefit from this money, and that whatever “spending” they’re seeing is just that from welfare bums? The New York Times offers some evidence to back up this theory in its latest dispatch from the state:

[jiggyboy]

“The other thing he misses, along with a lot of people who equate “earmarks” with “spending,” is that earmarks are not fresh spending. Earmarking is a means of allocating existing appropriations. Earmarks aren’t a contributor to the national debt.”

This is simply a lie, and a poor one. Earmarks are just as much a contributor to the national debt as anything else is, when the “existing appropriations” are part of a budget in deficit.

[Spitzensparkin1]

Um, I don’t know where the map came from but the state of New Mexico has always been a right to work state for as long as I can remember. At least as long as I have been in the workforce here. At least since the ‘70’s.

SS1

[re_nortex]

Um, I don’t know where the map came from but the state of New Mexico has always been a right to work state for as long as I can remember.

Um, with minimal effort, anyone can find where an image originated. Simply just hover your pointing device over the graphic and select the implementation-dependent menu item to view the image info which is: http://www.nrtw.org/.

You may also find this article of value from Forbes concerning New Mexico where you'll see that the state is not Right-to-Work.

[Fledermaus]

Mississippi receives the largest return on tax dollars sent to Washington,

Oh geez, not this left wing liberal lie again. Lies, damn lies and statistics. Check their definition of "tax dollars" and exclude a hell of a lot of taxes like Soc Sec and Medicare and then add those payments to the "return".