Posted on 04/07/2010 10:43:50 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Amid the roiling debate about the massive tax increases and growing role of government in the health care bill, the outrage we all experienced in December with the passage of the Cornhusker Kickback and the Louisiana Purchase in the Senate has taken a backseat in the public discussion as of late. However, while Democrats may have walked back on some of the highest-profile earmarks and payoffs, the health care bill is still rife with sweetheart deals designed to sway votes in Congress and curry good favor with constituents at home.
This is the wrong way to do business. That’s why I support banning earmarks and why I won’t vote for any earmarks if I am elected to the U.S. Senate.
Earmarks highlight the fundamental fact that so many in Washington have lost touch with the real world. In the real world people are accountable for every dollar they spend and for spending their money well and wisely. If they don’t, there are real consequences – like having to lay people off or close the doors entirely on your business.
Washington, however, lives by a different set of rules. In Washington the process goes something like this. Career politicians cut backroom deals with the powerful special interests to fund a project. This is done with the specific purpose of avoiding public scrutiny of the expenditure. Then, despite our growing deficit and national debt, the bill is sent to us, the taxpayers.
If programs are worthy of being funded, then we should have no fear of debating their merits in the light of day using the appropriations process. Our government should be open and transparent with taxpayers about how their money is being spent. Instead, Washington hangs earmarks on bills like ornaments on a Christmas tree.
As it is, California doesn’t get its fair share of the taxpayer dollars we send to Washington. Earmarks make this losing game all the more lopsided. Yet Democrats like Barbara Boxer, whose ineffectiveness would be even more obvious otherwise, depend on the earmark system to paper over their lackluster records.
That is why I was not altogether shocked to learn that another of my opponents, Tom Campbell supported millions of dollars in earmarks while in Congress. Like Barbara Boxer, Tom Campbell is a career politician. His self-described main qualification to serve in the U.S. Senate is his time as member of the House. He knows and is comfortable working under Washington’s rules. And like most politicians in an election year he’s now working overtime to cover-up and explain away his record. It is exactly this kind of politics as usual mentality voters are so sick and tired of, and it’s no great secret why.
Today, unemployment is at its highest level in decades, and our federal debt is more than $12.5 trillion. These are difficult economic times. But unlike Americans across this nation who have made wise financial decisions in paying down their debt, Washington has continued along the same path of bloated government spending that helped get us into this mess in the first place. That’s an outrage.
There are only two things we can do to address our nation’s deficit: grow the economy and cut spending. Growing the economy begins by allowing our economic engine to operate at full throttle. That means small businesses and entrepreneurs must be allowed to flourish and prosper. And when we talk about reining in our nation’s out-of-control federal spending, one of the first places we should look is at the billions of dollars in earmarks that riddle our federal budget.
True fiscal responsibility requires making tough decisions, which are bound to be less than popular. As any parent knows, taking away a teenager’s credit card when he maxes out one too many times does not help with the “cool” factor. But it’s the right thing to do. And it goes a long way in helping to chart a path toward greater fiscal discipline and responsibility in the future.
Washington could use a good dose of that same fiscal discipline, too.
What a clueless .. No, make that, compromised organization.
While she is perhaps best known as the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard Company (HP), what is not as well known is Carly worked her way through undergraduate and graduate school. A self-made woman, she started her business career as a secretary and went on to become the first, and to date, the only woman to lead a Fortune 20 company.
Carly served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) from 1999 to 2005, leading the reinvention of the legendary company, successfully steering it through the dot-com bust and the worst technology recession in 25 years. During her tenure, HP’s revenues doubled, from $44 billion to $88 billion, with improved profitability in every product category. Today, HP is the largest technology company in the world.
She proved her leadership in tough times. Her pursuit of the controversial merger with Compaq Computer is now acknowledged to be the most successful merger in high-tech history and positioned HP to become the first $100 billion information technology company, creating market leadership positions for the company in every one of its product lines.
Carly’s uncommon record of hard work and success includes more than 20 years at AT&T and Lucent Technologies, where she led the largest-of-its-time IPO of Lucent and became President of its largest business.
Today, Carly is one of the most recognized business leaders in the world and an opinion leader who chairs the Board of the Technology Policy Institute, served on the Board of Business Executives for National Security, is a Global Envoy for Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG organization and serves as vice chair of the Initiative for Global Development. She was also a member of the Defense Business Board, and recently served on the Advisory Group for Transformational Diplomacy for the Department of State.
As the Chairman of the Fiorina Foundation, chair of The One Woman Initiative - A Fund for Women’s Empowerment and a founding partner with The African Leadership Academy, Carly believes in giving back. She is also a board member of Freedom House, Vital Voices, the National Symphony Orchestra and Ford’s Theatre and serves as a trustee for MIT.
She helped put herself through school, doing the books at a local hair salon while she earned her undergraduate degree from Stanford and taught undergraduates in order to pay for an MBA from the University of Maryland. Her Masters of Science in Business from MIT was the result of years of hard work at AT&T - they thought enough about her promising future to send her there.
Carly - just another Bush-McCain-Graham-Tom Cobrun style RINO.
Fiorina has an admirable resume of success and getting a job done in difficult circumstances. She has a strong record of making difficult decisions.
LAT: McCain stumps for Fiorina
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mccain-fiorina7-2010apr07,0,4666984.story
Carly’s success at HP was questionable at best, as many of her decisions actually cost the company money after she left. As far a Lucent, it seems its success never panned out.
I don’t know whether or not Carly Fiorina qualifies as a RINO (she’s moderate-to-conservative on economic issues, pro-life and pro-marriage), but I do know that the only other candidate with a chance to win the GOP nomination, Tom Campbell, is unequivocably a RINO. Tom Campbell is in favor of same-sex marriage and partial-birth abortion, has a long record of anti-Zionist and pro-Islamist views and actions, and is, at best, a moderate on economic issues.
Tom Coburn???
As much as I dislike Fiorina her opponent displayed such low class on Hannity that he is out of consideration in my view.
As much as I dislike Fiorina her opponent displayed such low class on Hannity that he is out of consideration in my view.
I am sure she appreciates an Ohioan supporting her. :-)
I don’t know much about her. She has to be better than Boxer though, so if she is on the ballot in November, I’ll vote for her.
“I don’t know whether or not Carly Fiorina qualifies as a RINO”
She is absolutely NOT a RINO! The true RINO in this race is Tom Campbell. If being Berkeley professor doesn’t give people a clue, then I don’t know what else will, not to mention that he is so liberal, he shouldn’t even be a Republican.
Chuck DeVore is a respectable man, but you have to face facts here: he is seen as a “right-wing nutcase” by many of the mainstream voters in California, he trails in the polls; I just don’t think he’ll win.
Carly Fiorina, on the other hand, resonates well with many people. She’s conservative and is running on a conservative platform, but doesn’t come across as being a “right-wing wacko.”
If Carly hadn’t done what she did at HP, it wouldn’t be where it is today (revenues over $115 BILLION last year).
The primary is June 8th.
Carly and Tom are not the only candidates in the hunt.
That so many here are infatuated with her is not a surprise. Rinoism is tough to cure. It usually involves culling the host from the herd.
Go Chuck!
as long as there are those who mislead the base and preach prgamatism and electability before a single ballot has been cast,, the GoP is doomed to be a second rate party.
Dr. Tom Coburn is arguably the most conservative member of the U.S. Senate. If you are using the term “RINO” to describe him just because he said that Nancy Pelosi, while 100% wrong for America, is a pleasant person, then you need to get yourself a new dictionary.
And if Carly Fiorina’s issue positions are the same as those of George W. Bush, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, she’ll be the most conservative U.S. Senator from California in 60 years.
Hypocrital cover for her lack of experience and voting.
So what! This is California. Do you want 6 more years of Boxer?
Maybe Chuck DeVore will somehow take off. But if not, then it looks as if Carly is the best we can get this time around.
California is a VERY expensive state to campaign in, so it’s not easy to fight the machine(s).
I would vote for her over Boxr too.
But I would vote for a more conservative candidate in the Primary.
Boxer is a vicious left-wing partisan and should go, even if the only alternative is the kind of RINO who helps put these people back in office.
But if there is a better candidte on the slate in the California Primary, I would go with them rather than Carly “Farina”.
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