Kline Conference Call Wrap-Up
July 25th, 2008 by 
Kevin
Thursday morning myself and a fair number of other bloggers participated in a conference call with Congressman John Kline. The conference call was about Kline\’s new effort to Stop The Pork, essentially to stop the madness and corruption that is earmarks. He\’s got a petition at the site, that you can and should go and sign. Go on now, I\’ll wait for you…….
![\"Stop](\"http://www.eckernet.com/images/stopdapork.png\")
Now I\’m not gonna give you the summary of what was discussed. If that\’s what you want, you can read the writeups by Chief, Janet, Gary, Psycmeister or the Lady Logician. I think they cover all the aspects of the call but one.
And that aspect was the most refreshing part and gives me hope that something might actually result from this effort. Partisanship while it does have value, also is a great inhibitor to causes that otherwise should have virtually unanimous support.
Now John never actually came out and said it, but reading between the lines and picking up pieces of comments it was obvious that he gets this is not a partisan issue. When he talked about building momentum from the original 12 legislators supporting this effort, to the current level of 50, he talked about how he didn\’t feel momentum until Democrats started joining in. He also pointed out that this is a problem that really started under Republican leadership, but it has gotten out of control and has to be stopped.
Rather than retreating into a partisan shell, he admits were the initial fault lies. Rather than screaming, \”but the Democrats do it too\”, he has refused to request earmarks. Rather than slinging mud, he\’s trying to bring Democrats into the fold so that this effort can take real momentum.
Bipartisanship, sadly has become less of a reality and more of a punchline. However, this is an issue that needs and most certainly deserves bipartisan support. Governmental waste and political corruption is something that should not be supported, or even tolerated, by either party. And it\’s refreshing to see that John Kline is fighting against it in a way that hopefully pulls both sides together.
We can fight and scheme each others demise later, how about we get this out of the way first yeah? So regardless of your ideology or political affiliation, head on over to StopThePork.Com and help your self out (or at least your wallet) by helping John Kline out.
[Crossposted at True North]
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6 Comments »
July 25th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
I don’t see what the big fuss is about earmarks. Earmarks are simply the methodology of congress allocating funds before the executive branch allocates it. I’d rather have my congressman get our piece of the pie than be screwed over by some civil servant ignoring out district.
Kline could at least submit earmarks and then vote against them. That way when the majority of congress passes the bill we’d at least get our tax dollars back in projects.
We should be cutting the budget across the board instead of bickering who gets to spend it.
July 25th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
The big fuss is because earmarks are extra money spent for projects that can’t stand on their own merit. They are basically political bribery of the voters.
Getting our piece of pie when applied to every district across the country equals LOTS of waste. That type of attitude is why we have a rapidly growing federal government.
Cutting the budget across the board?? Why bother, when someone can just slip the equavilent monies back into the bill via an earmark??
Plus earmarks are the political coin in DC by which corruption is fostered. There are plenty of examples of politicians putting in earmarks for companies that then make huge contributions to their re-election campaigns. They are essentially buying a political war chest with your tax dollars. Senator Murtha is famous for this.
Also, there are plenty of examples (again see Murtha) of politicians who are committee chairs and block the earmarks of other politicians unless those politicians vote how they want on other bills. Once again, political bribery with your tax dollars.
Still think it’s not a big deal?
July 25th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Kevin, there is a fixed budget for the departments. Earmark’s aren’t extra money, they are just money being spent from that budget before the feds get their hands on it.
I’m not defending earmarks, but pointing out the hypocrisy that people think the executive branch can do a better job spending your tax dollars than your own congressman. Federal deparments are rife with ineptitude and corruption. They’re also top heavy with whichever political party has the presidency.
Now, yes, there are some very dirty people in congress. But that is the nature of a republic where you have 50 states pitted against each other for money.
One last note – if we want to stop the rapidly growing federal government, then the Republican Party needs to stop handing the democrats congress. When our party leadership decides to spend a trillion dollars in Iraq we’re not going to have much support where we can get our people elected as the majority. Earmarks are insignificant when compared to that colossal waste of money that did nothing more but strengthen the influence of Iran in the region.
July 26th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Wow. On the one hand we have money spent for a Constitutional imperative– protecting the security and defense of the nation– being criticized, while on the other we have some lowlife Congresscritter busily earmarking a few billion dollars for his buddy (and bigtime donor) to plant a few trees in the front yard of his house. Oh, yeah, that’s a moral equivalence.
The biggest problem I have with earmarks, other than the OBVIOUS corruption it produces, is that the federal government should not be funding these local projects at all. If Iowans, or the city of Marshalltown, want to build a rainforest museum, let them raise the money and do it– publicly or privately. They would be far better off doing so. In Minnesota, for example, we can get $1.00 of “federal money” ONLY by sending in something like $1.40 in taxes. Everytime one of our Congresscritters “brings home the bacon” it costs us half a hog. It’s stupid AND wasteful and corrupt. Kudos to John Kline for the courage to say so.
August 10th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
hi, andar here, i just read your post. i like very much. agree to you, sir.
October 10th, 2008 at 2:13 am
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