Posted on 08/08/2007 9:26:00 AM PDT by BGHater
These last few weeks the House has been in a rush to pass spending bills before August recess. In fact, visitors walking the hallways of Congress become immediately struck by the apparent spending battle between the “conservative Democrats” of the so-called “Blue Dog Coalition,” and the Republican Study Committee, or RSC, generally representing the more conservative bloc of Republican House members. Members of each of these groups place large posters on easels outside their offices. The purpose behind this seems clear, to point the finger at the opposite party for the current budget mess that continues to threaten America’s future.
When Republicans had control of the Presidency and both houses of Congress, very little was done to stem the tide of federal spending. In fact, spending increased every year over the past decade. New programs such as “No Child Left Behind,” and entitlements like the Prescription Drug Benefit, were added at great cost to federal taxpayers.
During this period, the Blue Dogs continued to make the rhetorical point of government financial misdeeds. Now that Democrats control the House, the RSC is highlighting the increases in spending and debt that will occur based on bills passed this year by the new majority.
While both sides continue attempting to score political points, the country goes further and further into debt, because neither side is really willing to make the tough decisions necessary to halt the run away train of federal spending. Several Republicans go to the House floor with amendments to stop spending directed by Congress, often seeking to cut projects that total $100,000 or less. While it is true that hundreds of thousands can and do add up, the same people who argue for these spending cuts think nothing of spending billions more in Iraq. At the same time, basically every spending bill that comes to the House Floor would have the majority spend more, even over and above the increases requested by the Administration.
Current arguments over spending really have no connection to the idea of the overall reduction in the size and scope of government. The Democrats who argue that tax cuts are a form of spending are just as misleading as the Republicans who say they can make a serious dent by changing congressionally directed spending into administration directed spending.
The federal government has a spending problem. Each year our current accounts balance gets worse and worse, and the amount of foreign held government debt has skyrocketed. Both Republicans and Democrats; conservatives, liberals and moderates, indeed nearly every single-member of the Washington political establishment, is addicted to one form of federal spending or another.
Only when the American people absolutely demand that the spending spree be stopped, will their representatives in Washington stop using this issue as a political football to score public relations points, and finally face-up to the fact that we are a nation in a very precarious financial position, which demands real spending cuts in order to avoid bankrupting our next generation.
According to the Houston Chronicle, Paul:
...leads the Houston-area delegation in the number of earmarks, or special funding requests, that he is seeking for his district. He is trying to nab public money for 65 projects, such as marketing wild shrimp and renovating the old movie theater in Edna that closed in 1977 — neither of which is envisioned in the Constitution as an essential government function.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4935311.html
(chuckle)
The Paulie Girls are gonna getcha for that.....
Here is a list of some of the pork that Paul has applied for. It is apparent that much of this has nothing to do with programs permitted, or mandated, by the Constitution. You figure out what clause of the Constitution enumerates the spending in question. I’m not an expert on the workings of Congress but reading through the funding requests I am under the impression that Paul was seeking multiple funding for some of these projects. I don’t know if this is cumulative, but that is the impression I got. Either way asking for it once is bad enough.
1. $25,000 for the Brazoria County Sheriff to establish a “Children’s Identification and Location Database.”
2. $8 million for the marketing of wild American shrimp.
3. $2.3 million for shrimp fishing research.
4. $3 million to “secure the acquisition of the McGinnes tract, protecting its critical natural resources and helping consolidate refuge inholdings.”
5. $5 million to expand the cancer center at Brazosport Hospital.
6. $200,000 for the Matagorda Episcopal Health Outreach Program to fund a “National Health Service Corp Scholar.”
7. $4.5 million to study the effects of the health risks of vanadium.
8. $3 million to test imported shrimp for antibiotics. (Does anyone think there is a big shrimp industry in Paul’s district?)
9. $10 million to repair the Galveston railways causeway bridge.
10. $1.18 million for “Personalized Medicine in Asthma”
11. $100,000 for a “data-driven automated system for nursing students on the Texas Gulf Coast.”
12. $257,000 to “prepare graduates from the doctoral program at the University of Texas Medical Branch School of Nursing to assume faculty roles in schools for nursing with a deficient number of doctoral level faculty.”
13. $1.4 million to buy buses for the Golden Crescent Regional Commission.
14. $2 million to buy buses for Galveston.
15. $5 million for highway spending.
16. $2 million to replace facilities for Galveston bus service.
17. $3 million to replace facilities for the Golden Crescent Regional bus facility.
18. $2 million to repair the Galveston trolley.
19. $2.14 million to renovate the Edna Theater.
20. $13 million for I-69 highway project.
21. $30 million the Texas Maritime Academy to refurbish a ship.
22. $4.5 million to maintain Cedar Bayou. Plus another $9 million
23. $15 million for “construction at GIWW Matagorda Bay.” Plus another $5.8 million
24. $100,000 to maintain Chocolate Bayou.
25. $2.5 million to maintain Double Bayou.
http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2007/07/ron-pauls-personal-pork-projects.html
Give me a break this little pip squeak Ross Perot wannabe is a joke.
The little man has a problem.
The neocons made him do it no doubt.
No doubt. The guy gives me the creeps. I don’t know why anyone is paying attention to him.
And you'll get right back to us when you see he's
A) voted in the affirmative for any of the projects and
B) where it is in the Constitution he's not supposed to represent his constituency by passing along requests for the government's ear.
But keep on harping eh?
Wild shrimp!
I am your pork pimp!
I'll make federal funds ... easy!
Wild shrimp!
Wild shrimp, I want to pimp you
But I gotta know for sure.
Will eight mil be enough?
You need it...
Wild shrimp!
My values go limp!
I'm just an earmark pimp
For my wild shrimp!
Wild Shrimp: The Other Pork
Whether he votes for the bill or not makes no difference. A spending bill will pass with his pork on it. How stupid are you people?
No I am not. But people that seriously suggest a Representative's job is not to represent his constituents must believe the Constitution outlines a role for the Representative, other than to rubberstamp the administration's actions.
suggesting that it is okay to do everything NOT listed in the Constitution
On second thought, what does the 10th Amendment say? Although I realize early Republicans most of all hated that Amendment and did all they could to destroy.
No Blood for Shrimp!
Ron Paul serves the interests of Big Shrimp.
You've got that completely backwards. Whether a congressman votes for or against the underlying spending bill makes all the difference...the earmarks are requested after the spending is authorized
If true, Paul is quite the porkster.
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