Earmarks and pork, I agree, are repulsive, but that is not what has us in trouble. It is the bloated Federal government bureaucracy and entitlements: Social security retirement age, health benefits, negative income tax (that is tax credits, and, more than 47% need to be paying tax, free lunch programs, education grants, welfare payments . . . and the list goes on and on and on.
True. Entitlements are the fundamental problem. However, they are also the most complex (see Greece). We MUST work on getting rid of the welfare state. In the meantime, however, it sure would help a lot if our congresscritters stopped pork barrel spending. Not only does this increase federal government spending by billions and billions, it’s also the basis for the entire GAME of politics in Washington. Every politician who steps away from what he knows very well his constitutents want him to do, rationalizes — quite accurately, as it turns out — that all will be forgiven once he gets that $10 million for honeybee research and that $3 million for replica gas lamps for that 2-block “main street” in Nowheresville, His State.
IOW, stopping earmarks does a lot more than reduce spending. It actually reduces each congresscritter’s POWER. He has nothing to bargain with, horsetrade with, rationalize to himself or his constituents with, or goody-bags to campaign on. He actually would have to do his JOB in a way that got him re-elected on the merits.
Priceless!
Good points. We are definitely on the same page.