He shouldn't be in the position to do it again.
Still we want to support our Tea Party congressmen and women.
Posted on 04/04/2012 5:47:54 AM PDT by SharpRightTurn
Ever since Rick Santilli’s “rant heard ‘round the world” spawned the Tea Party rebellion, establishment Republican leaders have been loath to admit that what motivates Tea Partiers is distaste for them and how they ran Congress, as much as it is distaste for Obama and the Democrats.
Or maybe Republican leaders, particularly in the House of Representatives, are just too dumb to understand what brought them back to power after the 2010 Tea Party wave election – and it wasn’t that voters thirsted for a return to the failed policies of the Bush – Hastert – Frist axis that voters rejected in 2006 and that nearly destroyed the Republican brand during President George W. Bush’s second term.
What brought Republicans back to power in the House, and holds some prospect for keeping them there and even winning the Senate, is the public’s desire for a return to fiscal sanity and constitutional government.
That is the platform Republicans ran on in 2010, and which frankly they have failed to deliver.
Americans have been reasonably patient with the House Republicans. Recognizing that they controlled only one-half of one of the three branches of government, voters seemed willing to bide their time, as long as it appeared that the Republicans had broken with the old ways and offered a clear alternative to the Democrats, who obviously hadn’t.
Now comes word, that at the same time conservatives have begun to question House Republican leadership on budget matters, in an effort to pass a stalled, and outrageously bad, transportation bill the House Republican leadership is considering bringing back earmarks.
Earmarks – the practice of allowing Congressional leaders to bestow taxpayer-funded projects in return for votes – were the symbol of the corrupt Hastert Republican Congress.
Earmarks were what disgraced and imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff sought, and what allowed now imprisoned Congressman Duke Cunningham to corrupt the defense budget and they were the vehicle by which “Dollar Bill” Jefferson earned his soon-to-begin 13 years in prison.
But more importantly, earmarks – in the form of thinly disguised member-to-member bribery – are the power by which bad legislation was long forced through Congress by the establishment insiders of both political parties.
And the House Republican leaders and insiders who are now talking about bringing back earmarks aren’t even coy about saying that’s why they want earmarks back.
According to a recent Reuters article, Republican Representative Steven LaTourette, an 18-year House veteran, said the earmark ban "has affected discipline" within the party. "You can't get 218 votes (out of 242 Republican House members) and part of that has to be if you can't give people anything (earmarks), you can't take anything away from them."
LaTourette went on to elaborate that if a member of Congress agrees with 90 percent of a pending bill but is "uncomfortable" with the other 10 percent, "Sometimes taking care of your district (with earmarks) made up for that 10 percent."
In other words, House leaders use earmarks to bribe members into voting against their principles.
Soon after the 2010 election constitutional conservative Senator Jim DeMint warned the Tea Party freshman about the blandishments of power that would be offered by Washington’s inside elite. No sooner had those words been printed in The Wall Street Journal than Senator turned lobbyist Trent Lott was quoted as saying the Washington establishment needed to co-opt the newly elected Tea Party backed Congressmen.
Earmarks were long the premier means by which unaccountable Congressional insiders co-opted junior members to build and enhance their power at the taxpayers’ expense. Reinstituting earmarks would be a final breach of faith with the Tea Partiers and grassroots movement conservatives who returned Republicans to power, and prove that establishment Republican leaders do indeed have a death wish.
If Boehner is in control of the House again in the next congressional session, the Tea Party efforts will have been for naught. The guy is worse than nothing.
And they're bragging about Ryan's latest budget plan, which takes--what?--30 years to balance the budget
The opposition fields people who think like tribal warriors and suicide bombers.
How is that ever going to work out?
the time for 30 year plans was 35 years ago.
we need a 30 minute fix for the budget.
we’ll get it. It’ll hurt either way, one (the let it crash on it’s own) will hurt the worse.
The GOP establishment treated Sarah Palin with scorn.
The GOP establishment viewed the Tea Party with contempt.
The GOP establishment took down anyone who got in Mitt Romney’s way.
Obama is really, really bad — but I don’t think I’ll be voting Republican in 2012. At some point, one has to say “No more”. I’m at that point: the GOP has gone the way of the Whigs.
It’s not a death wish at all, but a wish to go along-get along and be nice and popular.
The Tea Party has upset the apple cart of the Government Party (which has a left and right wing).
The ruling elite played their left/right game to perfection making most of us believe we were important to the process and keeping the country on course when the reality was the Government Party has and continues to move the country towards Marxism. We are well into socialism, crony capitalism, and heading towards Marxist Communism just at slightly different speeds.
Only the Tea Party has been able to gain enough traction to pull on the other end of the rope and offer some resistance to this political tug of war. Libertarians have tried but unfortunately they have had some, shall we say, loose cannons leading the charge.
A Tea Party with libertarian principals could begin to put us back in sync with the brilliance of the founders.
No wonder the Tea Party is blasted from both sides. The Government Party has been exposed as a cabal of Progressives.
He shouldn't be in the position to do it again.
Still we want to support our Tea Party congressmen and women.
Great post.. it explains the Romney Republicans. Is this an exact quote? “Republican Representative Steven LaTourette, an 18-year House veteran, said the earmark ban “has affected discipline” within the party. “You can’t get 218 votes (out of 242 Republican House members) and part of that has to be if you can’t give people anything (earmarks), you can’t take anything away from them.”
We only give so we can take away? That does not sound like a constitutional argument.
Great post.. it explains the Romney Republicans. Is this an exact quote? “Republican Representative Steven LaTourette, an 18-year House veteran, said the earmark ban “has affected discipline” within the party. “You can’t get 218 votes (out of 242 Republican House members) and part of that has to be if you can’t give people anything (earmarks), you can’t take anything away from them.”
We only give so we can take away? That does not sound like a constitutional argument.
” Americans have been reasonably patient with the House Republicans. “
And that, in a nutshell, is the core of the problem - we’ve been ‘reasonable’ and patient, and that’s got us to the miserable state we’re in...
Time to try some Radical Impatience....
” - - - we need a 30 minute fix for the budget.
we’ll get it. It’ll hurt either way, one (the let it crash on it’s own) will hurt the worse.”
______
Due to the FHA Bankruptcy of September, 2008, American home owners lost 30 % of the value of their homes. That is a 30 % cut in just one month. Home values are still down 30 %.
Thus, let us cut the total compensation to all elected Federal politicians, and their staffs by 30 %, and an additional 10 % cut to elected Federal politicians each year until Federal Spending is LESS THAN the average of the previous 2 years of Federal income.
BTW, since slightly less than half of the US House, and 2/3 of the US Senate are Millionaires, it will be a great opportunity for Congress to lead by example that EVERYONE should give up their “fair” share of the American Dream.
What better way can there be to demonstrate that America is truly a SUB-PRIME NATION?
LLS
LLS
Everybody has a ‘wake up’ moment. Unfortunately some on our side haven’t arrived at that point yet.
Just yesterday I was called a 5 year old throwing temper tantrum. I sure hope he/she grow more maturely in thinking. And soon.
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