End earmarks now

Will the Republican Party, having captured six US Senate seats this fall, be able to retake control of that body in two years' time?

That's when the Senate GOP caucus will vote behind closed doors on a motion by Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina to voluntarily decline all earmarks during the next session of Congress.

House Republicans have supported such a moratorium in the past, and incoming Speaker John Boehner is leading the effort to reaffirm it.

But Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell -- a 26-year Senate veteran -- is dead set against banning earmarks. As Stephen Ellis, of Taxpayers for Common Sense, says, "Earmarks are in his DNA."

And he has some powerful allies among Old Guard Republicans, who appreciate the political attraction of sending wads of taxpayer cash home to their districts.

McConnell and supporters like Sen. Jim Inhofe argue that, when push comes to shove, earmark spending has little impact on the long-term federal deficit. Moreover, they say, it would unfairly tarnish legitimate local projects and cede spending authority to the White House.

But earmarks are a powerful symbol of what Sen. Tom Coburn rightly calls the "backroom deals, horse-trading, veiled threats and indirect bribes [that] have always been a part of Congress and every other legislative body."

They've also been an integral part of recent influence-peddling scandals, as symbolized by the late Rep. John Murtha, Congress' Pork King.

2012 Republican incumbent elections
Jon Kyl of Arizona - Time will tell
Richard Lugar of Indiana - Outa there
Olympia Snowe of Maine - Outa there
Scott Brown of Massachusetts - Time will tell
Roger Wicker of Mississippi - Keeper so far
John Ensign of Nevada - Liability - replace with Angle
Bob Corker of Tennessee - Outa there
Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas - Outa there
Orrin Hatch of Utah - Outa there
John Barrasso of Wyoming - Keeper so far

I ‘m wondering which part of “THIS COUNTRY IS BROKE AND IS OPERATING ON BORROWED MONEY” they don’t understand?

Perhaps we all should send old Mitch and Jim several bundles of “Monopoly” money so they have something to spread around back home, it might make them feel better while we prepare to throw them out on their asses on their next cycle to be elected, or NOT.

“But earmarks are a powerful symbol of what Sen. Tom Coburn rightly calls the “backroom deals, horse-trading, veiled threats and indirect bribes [that] have always been a part of Congress and every other legislative body.””

Then the trio let us see it up close and personal. Earmarks have gotta go period. Those old guards have gotten so used to this immoral behavior they don’t understand how disgusting it is for the first time viewer.

Victims of Lawful Plunder

Men naturally rebel against the injustice of which they are victims. Thus, when plunder is organized by law for the profit of those who make the law, all the plundered classes try somehow to enter — by peaceful or revolutionary means — into the making of laws. According to their degree of enlightenment, these plundered classes may propose one of two entirely different purposes when they attempt to attain political power: Either they may wish to stop lawful plunder, or they may wish to share in it.

Woe to the nation when this latter purpose prevails among the mass victims of lawful plunder when they, in turn, seize the power to make laws!

Until that happens, the few practice lawful plunder upon the many, a common practice where the right to participate in the making of law is limited to a few persons. But then, participation in the making of law becomes universal. And then, men seek to balance their conflicting interests by universal plunder. Instead of rooting out the injustices found in society, they make these injustices general. As soon as the plundered classes gain political power, they establish a system of reprisals against other classes. They do not abolish legal plunder. (This objective would demand more enlightenment than they possess.) Instead, they emulate their evil predecessors by participating in this legal plunder, even though it is against their own interests.

It is as if it were necessary, before a reign of justice appears, for everyone to suffer a cruel retribution — some for their evilness, and some for their lack of understanding.

The Results of Legal Plunder

It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder.

Frederic Bastiat 1801-1850

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