Congress is Hooked on your Money

To quote from a recent op-ed by Jeffrey Gardner in the Albuquerque Times: "Here's an interesting quote from the New York Times: 'When men get in the habit of helping themselves to the property of others, they cannot easily be cured of it.' You'll be stunned to learn that those words were in reference to income taxes and not thievery - mere semantics, of course. Unfortunately they were written nearly 100 years ago, in a 1909 editorial protesting the first federal income tax, to be precise. That, as they say, was then, long before we became so inured to the notion of redistributing wealth. . . . A short hundred years ago, we were a tax-free land. Those days are long gone, of course. Now, the Democrats' addiction to higher taxes and their base's blind hatred of the president are about to drive a stake into the heart of an economy that's simply rocking."

Now we learn from an article by Edmund L. Andrews and Robert Pear that with New Rules, Congress Boasts of Pet Projects : If the idea was to shame lawmakers into restraint, it did not work. Eight months after Democrats vowed to shine light on the dark art of “earmarking” money for pet projects, many lawmakers say the new visibility has only intensified the competition for projects by letting each member see exactly how many everyone else is receiving. So far this year, House lawmakers have put together spending bills that include almost 6,500 earmarks for almost $11 billion in local projects, only half of which the Bush administration supported. The earmark frenzy hit fever pitch in recent days, even as the Senate passed new rules that allow more public scrutiny of them.

Far from causing embarrassment, the new transparency has raised the value of earmarks as a measure of members’ clout. Indeed, lawmakers have often competed to have their names attached to individual earmarks and rushed to put out press releases claiming credit for the money they bring home. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), has obtained about $63 million worth of projects, most of them in or near her district in San Francisco. But Ms. Pelosi was overshadowed by Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense, who obtained $163 million in pet projects . . . [Read More] ARRA Editor: I guess Congress will stop earmarks only "when pigs fly."

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Tags: Congressional Pork, earmarks, pork, pork-barrel spenders, US Congress, US House, John Murtha, PA, Nancy Pelosi, CA To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!