During the 2006 political campaign, every liberal Democrat (aka "progressives"), promised us that if we would only boot out the evil Republicans, they would restore honor and honesty and end congressional corruption. A prominent piece of their campaign to cleanup the corruption was to eliminate "earmarks". "Earmarks" are special funding allocations for the big donors back home. In less enlightened times we called this "pork barrel spending" or even "pay-offs". Unlike other legitimate spending allocations, "earmarks" are almost always tacked onto any bill regardless of what the bill is intended to fund. For instance, an "earmark" for a 400 million dollars for a quarter mile stretch of road in Podunk Falls might suddenly appear in a measure that is intended to provide education funding and is considered a virtual lock to be passed and signed into law.
Pelosi, Boxer, H. Dean, MoveOn, Murtha, Kennedy, Kerry, Edwards, Reid, Big Media and the rest of the cast and crew of the liberal Democrat party all promised to end this unconstitutional and corrupt process.
Well folks, they
LIED and the proof is in the reading of the House defense appropriations bill. This measure, intended to provide funding for the defense of our country, is loaded with over
1700 "earmarks".
1700 "earmarks" in a defense appropriation bill is about as far from eliminating this corrupt practice as you can get. Inserting spending intended to payback local donors and buy votes for politicians into a measure that will provide the funds necessary to supply and protect our troops and country is the height of greed, arrogance and deceit. It is also one of the practices that the
liberal Democrat (aka "progressive") leaders promised would be eliminated.
The good folks at Newsmax took the time to sort the 1700 "earmarks" by the politician who inserted them.
Since corruption knows no political boundaries, we have not included party designations. We have however, highlighted three of those who were most loud in their promises to save us from the evil of a corrupt Congress: Pelosi, Murtha and Obey.
Young, C.W. Bill 59
Murtha, John 46Lewis, Jerry 38
Moran, James 30
Visclosky, Peter 28
Kingston, Jack 26
Tiahrt, Todd 25
Dicks, Norman 24
Kaptur, Marcy 21
Cramer, Robert 20
Frelinghuysen, Rodney 20
Hobson, David 20
Boyd, Allen 19
Meehan, Martin 18
Bishop, Sanford 18
Pelosi, Nancy 15 Rothman, Steven 15
Price, David 13
Reynolds, Thomas 11
Wicker, Roger 11
Hoyer, Steny 11
Obey, David 10 Hunter, Duncan 10
Olver, John 10
Capuano, Michael 10
Marshall, Jim 10
Judging by the stampede to the feeding trough by the current Congress, we still have a lot of politicians to remove from OUR Congress. A good start would be replacing those who were most vocal in their promises to clean up Congress : Pelosi, Murtha and Obey.
Folks, it is all too easy to complain about big government, corruption, high taxes, interference with the family, massive spending programs or what ever it is that angers us. But until we all get off of our behinds, participate and demand action, ain't nothing gonna' get done. Call your representatives, local and federal. Send emails and letters. Only donate to the specific candidates you have personally checked out. Think for yourself and tell BigMedia, the political parties and the unions to shut up and that you are fully capable of thinking for yourself.
We are all fond of referring to America as "Our Country" but how many of us are actually doing anything to protect "Our Country"? Judging by the current crop of liars and thieves that we elected to represent us, it looks as if most of us are sitting on the sidelines and watching the game.