Thad Cochran: 'I Think Earmarks Have Gotten A Bad Name'

breitbart.com ^ | 5/13/14 | Matthew Boyle

[cotton1706]

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) suggested to National Public Radio (NPR) he would like to bring earmarks back to Congress.

“I think earmarks have gotten a bad name,” Cochran told the national radio outlet for a piece it published on the race between Cochran and state Sen. Chris McDaniel for the GOP nomination for the seat.

Cochran said if Congress isn’t allow to earmark spending, then federal agencies have more authority over how to spend the money. "For those who are opposed to that [earmarks], [they] are for the federal agencies making the decision [where money is spent],“ Cochran said, adding, “This is supposed to be government of and by and for the people — not for the bureaucrats,” Cochran said.

Speaker John Boehner just reiterated his opposition to earmarks Monday, and House Republican Leadership is firmly opposed to the idea. After a struggle, even Sen. Mitch McConnell, a longtime member of the appropriations committee, supported banning earmarks in 2010.

“Banning earmarks is another small but important symbolic step we can take to show that we're serious, another step on the way to serious and sustained cuts in spending and to the debt,” McConnell said when he backed the ban in November 2010.

Earmarks are provisions in spending bills requiring federal agencies to spend money on specific local projects. They became controversial because many of the projects were seen as wasteful and parochial, and earmarks came to be used as leverage to "buy" votes on difficult bills.

[colorado tanker]

For once I agree with Thad.

Yes, Thad, earmarks have gotten a bad name. With good reason.

[houeto]

Thank you WKB for the list!

Mississippi Ping!

[Sybeck1]

My father is a Thad fan and had a sign in his yard. Why I have asked him? Because he had helped him in the past. When I tell it is other people's money he just can't defend the man

[Hawthorn]

>> Spending is spending whether a congressman earmarks it directly or a bureaucrat decides where it goes. <<

Sure. But the objection to earmarks is that they increase the incentives for Congressmen, Congresswomen and Senators to vote for more and more federal spending.

Therefore, the anti-earmark theory as espoused by people like Sen. Tom Coburn is basically this:

Get rid of earmarks and then, total spending is supposed to go down.

(Maybe the theory wouldn’t work as advertised. But it’s certainly worth a try!)

[Din Maker]

My father is a Thad fan and had a sign in his yard. _____________________________________________________________ .......had a sign in his yard??? Does that mean he has removed the sign?

[Theodore R.]

A lot of MS people don’t know that Thad was part of the cabal in MS in 1976 that delivered all 30 delegates under the unit rule to the “John Paul Stevens Republican”, Gerald Rudolph, Ford, Jr., which is also an alias.