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.
I hear ya. whatever became of the successful small businessman getting his day in the sunshine,, uhh, Senate.
Today, they are either lawyers or wealthy business folk..
Is that really representative of what America is made of?
Apparently so.. and many here are happy to see it stay that way.
What do you propose to do to guarantee Boxer is defeated in November? How do we avoid a RINO like Fiorina and guarantee Boxer loses?
The question I have is,, why do we need to give Snowe and Collins more playmates to stick it in the party’s back ..
Rinos are worse than dems in some ways, imo. Why invite that kind of intrigue?
especially when there is a groundswell to the right after all the abominations visited on us by the left the last couple years.
The time to insist on ideological purity (or as close as possible) is in the primary.
In the General, always always always support the opponent of the Democrat.
It’s a lesson we’ve all learned this year.
I think Jim DeMint qualifies as a successful small businessman, as does Coburn and some of the other docs.
There are a few and they are usually on our side. I hope DeVore pulls it out but if not, Boxer’s gotta go either way!
Having the ability to self-finance does not guarantee victory. Former candidate millionaires like Michael Huffington and Al Checchi could not buy their way to electibility, and Carly will very likely be the same. Boxer will expose her as the empty-suit she is.
The only thing you or I or anybody here can do is work hard to support a candidate, tell your friends, contribute money, contribute time to phone bank or precinct walk, write letters to the editor, blog, put up yard signs, register voters, etc.
It's much easier to give full-support to somebody whom you respect and shares your values. Trying to convince somebody your candidate sucks less than your opponent (Boxer in this case) is a hard sales pitch to make. That's why we were doomed with McCain from the time he clinched the GOP presidential nomination.
I read a trade magazine back in the mid 90’s where she stated that the American worker needs to just get used to the idea and re-train themselves as a result of all the corporate trends involving companies outsourcing their projects and workforce to foriegn countries...
Screw her...She is certainly as replaceable as any one of us are!!! And more so...She still needs a big fat piece of humble pie as far as I am concerned...
I’ll never forget (r forgive) that arrogant position of hers...
Y’all do not want to know what I really think of her...It would break the rules...And I respect this forum wayyyy to much to sully it with the obvious...;-)
I don’t know why the Republican party has moved so far away from Conservatism. I don’t know why we can’t get more solid Conservative candidates from the national party.
I think the national Republican party should run more staunch conservatives for national offices from California. I think Republican candidates do better in California when they are true conservatives, rather than socialist lite, because socialist lite always loses to the die-hard socialist.
That is theory. Here is reality.
Fiorina is buying the California Republican senatorial nomination. The national Republic party likes they think she is electable, and their ONLY priority is to get an R in that seat. Hitler with an R would do for them.
So when it comes time to pull the lever for either Boxer or Fiorina, you can ask yourself why Fiorina should get to play with people like Snowe and Spector and McLame, and you can vote 3rd party and insure Babs Boxer keeps her Senate Seat, keeping Reid the Majority Leader, and allowing cap and trade, and Amnesty for illegals to pass — or you can let Fiorina play with the RINOs and at least allow the Senate Repulican Majority Leader have a chance to repeal Obamacare.
That is why we should let Fiorina play with the other RINOS. It is so we can achieve the ends of pulling back from all out socialism. If you think that is unpalatable, and you would rather see socialism institutionalized in the USA than see another RINO vote to save the yellow-butt-stripe partidge toad, then we get to become France, thank you very much.
Coburn wth?
Tom Campbell is the real RINO in this race.
Devore is better than Fiorina but she’s not terrible, like Campbell.
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