Posted on 09/13/2007 7:22:47 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Well, he didn’t oppose the Feds in everything...:
“Thompson was fiercely protective when it came to his own earmarks. His congressional website boasts of the federal dollars he was able to “snag” for his Tennessee constituents, including $25 billion in highway funds; $70 million for the Tennessee Valley Authority; $2 million for the Tennessee River; and $23 million for the Spallation Neutron Source project. Thompson felt so strongly about preserving funding for the Tennessee Valley Authority, he fought to exempt funds for the TVA from the balanced budget constitutional amendment in 1995, carving out a new category of “constitutional pork.” And though Thompson supported and voted for the presidential line-item veto, he fought vehemently to undo President Clinton’s veto of two Tennessee projects.”
http://www.clubforgrowth.org/2007/09/fred_thompsons_record_on_econo.php
I would not believe anything the St. Petersburg Times said.
Wow! Another Paulestinian for my first post! It’s like I won some lottery from Hell... Your man isn’t even a republican, more of a Cindy Sheehan anti-American peacecreep. I take any negative comment from a Paulbearer as a compliment...
TVA isn’t only for Tennessee. It serves the power needs of many states. It’s one of the few government programs that are really worth a damn.
And that will resonate with people - they will feel they can trust him to stay the course and even if they don't agree on all points (which would be impossible on any candidate, but which a lot of pubbies get hung up on) most will feel they have, in Fred, someone whose word they can trust.
That's worth it's weight in gold.
maybe, but I just realized how much I miss this kind of reporting. Kudos to the author. The item is factual, informative, provides just the right amount of explanatory background, and I didn't detect any editorializing.
How many years has it been since I read any newspaper article even close to this? Probably about 40 odd years I think.
Ping!!
Nothing like a good slam from a ron paul wussy to remind you you are on the right path.
I would not put HW funds as an ear mark or the TVA either. I saw a history channel program on the TVA and how it made cheap electricty available to many small rural areas that the energy companies did not want to spend the money on for lack of profitablity. As far as the river and the neutron project I can’t honestly say if they are worth while projects or not.
I suggest asking someone from his state if they were boon dogels or worth while projects. The first sign that something is a waste of money is if the senators own name is on it.
Does the word “shrimp” ring a bell?
“Texas congressman and Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul who is campaigning as a critic of congressional overspending has revealed that he is requesting $400 million worth of earmarks this year.
The Wall Street Journal reports Paul’s office says those requests include $8 million for the marketing of wild American shrimp and $2.3 million to pay for research into shrimp fishing.”
Fredipedia: The Definitive Fred Thompson Reference
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“But it also may put him at odds with social conservatives who have come to view power in Washington as a means of addressing moral or social issues nationwide.”
As a “social/moral conservative” I would say that statement is correct. Unfortunately, the courts have been so messed up for so long that many things have to be now handled at the federal level because of court decisions.
IF Roe V Wade could be reversed, and the question left up to states. I would support that move, as long as the federal government made it illegal to cross state lines to have an abortion. Meaning, if in state “A” abortion was legal, but in state “B” it is not, someone from state B cannot go to state “A” to abort a child. This would cause abortion to be trully banned in some states. It would isolate the abortion industry to a few states where it would then wither on the vine. Take away the profit, and abortions would pretty much cease.
In all honesty, I realize this will never work. So, that puts it back on federal law to control things in states. I also freely admit that I don’t have the answers on what the balance should be between states rights and federal law, except what the 10th Ammendment says.....which the courts have pretty much repealed by their rulings.
“But it also may put him at odds with social conservatives who have come to view power in Washington as a means of addressing moral or social issues nationwide.”
As a “social/moral conservative” I would say that statement is correct. Unfortunately, the courts have been so messed up for so long that many things have to be now handled at the federal level because of court decisions.
IF Roe V Wade could be reversed, and the question left up to states. I would support that move, as long as the federal government made it illegal to cross state lines to have an abortion. Meaning, if in state “A” abortion was legal, but in state “B” it is not, someone from state B cannot go to state “A” to abort a child. This would cause abortion to be trully banned in some states. It would isolate the abortion industry to a few states where it would then wither on the vine. Take away the profit, and abortions would pretty much cease.
In all honesty, I realize this will never work. So, that puts it back on federal law to control things in states. I also freely admit that I don’t have the answers on what the balance should be between states rights and federal law, except what the 10th Ammendment says.....which the courts have pretty much repealed by their rulings.
LOLOL....You made my night with tht post.. LOLOL
I’m continuously amazed at how few these days, even among presidential candidates, seem able to distinguish the difference between the sworn oath to protect unalienable rights and the duty to govern from within the bounds of the Enumerated Powers.
What a bunch of confused puppies.
Hey this thread is on Thompson not RP! But, for the record, I’ve never defended RP’s spending, in fact, its one of the few things I’ve disagreed with him on.
I just love shrimp. ;OD
Well, IMO, we are lucky that the new dealers were defeated by what was left of conservatism in congress and prevented from creating these TVA monstrocities across the nation (which was planned at one time).
Here is Ronald Reagan:
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/reference/timechoosing.html
Some government programs with the passage of time take on a sacrosanct quality.
One such considered above criticism, sacred as motherhood, is TVA. This program started as a flood control project; the Tennessee Valley was periodically ravaged by destructive floods. The Army Engineers set out to solve this problem. They said that it was possible that once in 500 years there could be a total capacity flood that would inundate some 600,000 acres. Well, the engineers fixed that. They made a permanent lake which inundated a million acres. This solved the problem of floods, but the annual interest on the TVA debt is five times as great as the annual flood damage they sought to correct.
Of course, you will point out that TVA gets electric power from the impounded waters, and this is true, but today 85 percent of TVA’s electricity is generated in coal burning steam plants. Now perhaps you’ll charge that I’m overlooking the navigable waterway that was created, providing cheap barge traffic, but the bulk of the freight barged on that waterway is coal being shipped to the TVA steam plants, and the cost of maintaining that channel each year would pay for shipping all of the coal by rail, and there would be money left over.
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