Posted on 03/02/2011 1:04:41 PM PST by Reese Hamm
WASHINGTON (AP) — First-term Republican Rep. Tim Scott of Charleston, S.C., says he's looking for "any way in the world" to get federal money to expand his hometown's aging harbor. It's the one way he won't pursue that's making some South Carolinians angry.
Scott, like his state's famously conservative senator, Jim DeMint, is among a new breed of tea party-backed conservatives who have sworn off "earmarks" — the pet projects that lawmakers can write into spending bills for their districts. He won't ask for one, won't support one, doesn't even want to talk about it.
His opposition to earmarks helped get him elected last year in a conservative state where slashing government spending is a political battle cry. But he's finding that saying no can be tricky business for members of Congress, who are traditionally rewarded for bringing federal projects home.
The Charleston Harbor in particular — a critical economic engine in a poor state — is testing his resolve, just as local demands for highways, dams and other needs are challenging the anti-spending rhetoric from campaign trails across the country.
"I'm looking for any way in the world to fund it legally, ethically and morally," Scott said when asked about the project recently. "We've got to find a different way."
...
Even Jeanne Seaver, a co-founder of the Savannah tea party, said she would support an earmark for the Georgia project.
"We want less government spending and want to stop spending more than we're taking in," Seaver said. "But this creates jobs. It's not considered wasteful spending to me. It's going to create business."
"If it's an earmark, it's an earmark," she added. "I would support it 100 percent."
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Presumably the Port of Charleston makes money. If not, shut it down.
If so, maybe the money should be redirected to harbor facility maintenance and upgrade. That’s how you run a business. You save money off to maintain and upgrade and calculate that as part of the operations expenses.
You’re not supposed spend it buying votes.
Even the TEA Party has'em...porkers.
It's OK if it's my earmark.
These earmarks create jobs, they are good earmarks, it's your earmarks that are wasteful spending.
This is one reason it's so damn hard to change the culture in DC.
It make me want to shower when a TEA Party person is so screwed up.
for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;
This is a clearly specified, enumerated power of Congress and as such is not an "earmark". This Freshman Congresscritter needs a whomp upside his head with a souvenier copy of the Constitution.
L
Gee I don't know, maybe sell a Bond or GASP actually charge the people and companies who'll use this harbor what it actually costs to upgrade it?
L
If a city wants a park or whatever , let them hold a bake sale!
Leave my tax monies alone!
“This is a clearly specified, enumerated power of Congress and as such is not an “earmark”. This Freshman Congresscritter needs a whomp upside his head with a souvenier copy of the Constitution.”
Excellent, that means a bill can be passed specifically adressing the issue. Kudos to the Rep. for standing up for his principles, legislating the right way, and not feeding at the trough.
I work all up and down the east coast and the new fad in tax payer dollars is harbor dredging. Supposedly renovations to the Panama Canal is going to bring much larger ships to American ports so harbors are begging for tax dollars to renovate American harbors. Where are the private sector owners of these facilities?
This is like the NFL team owners who suck on the taxpayer teet to build their new stadiums and then charge those tax payers so much for a ticket that a working guy can’t afford to take his kid to a ball game. Stop welfare of every kind.
Tim if it would make money the private sector would do it, so put up sign that says harbor for rent.
Just a few miles down the coast, the port of savanna makes money, Charleston has never been in the big league.
Okay. But if the harbor facilities needs fixin’ or the channels need dredging why should the taxpayers pay for it?
Let the users fund it. And stop stealing their taxes for vote buying...
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