Replies to post #92764 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[wbmw]

It sounds to me like your dodging.

No, I'm just trying to sort out the criticisms from the punditry.

No one said the Stim didn't do it's job.

Many have said it and will continue to say it.

There's no way some of the examples given could be characterized as anything other than pork......

Pork barrel spending has become a political talking point. Without looking into each individual project, are you going to take some blogger's characterization at face value? Or even if it's not a blogger, who in the media these days is willing to give Obama or the Dems a fair shake?

On one side, I'm not naive enough to believe that no Congressman is going to prioritize their local stuff over what's good for the country as a whole. But if you are going to call everything that's local a pork barrel project, then what isn't pork? I also bet you that if you can find something that isn't pork, then I can find you someone who will call it pork. That's my point. The term pork has become worse than the actual spending, but it's unfair to characterize all projects as pork, even though some people will certainly try to do so.

not too mention the omnibus spending bill of $410 billion passed by the house shortly after the Stim Bill.

Look, there is literally no end to the number of projects a district can find to spend money on. Spending spurs growth, and there isn't a Congressman out there who doesn't want credit for voting on something that benefits their district. But at some point, people need to restrain themselves and stick to a disciplined budget.

If the economy is contracting, then it makes sense for the government to inject money into the system, and at the same time finance projects that help the country to grow - even if it means doing it with borrowed money. However, there is a reasonable limit, and the omnibus bill is redundant and will probably never be signed into law.

They saved all the pork for that one, so it's a bit disingenuous to crow about no earmarks in the Stim Bill.

It's not disingenuous, and in fact it's very relevant, due to the fact that the ARRA bill became law, while Omnibus bill probably never will.

At the end of the day, I think you forget the reason for earmarks, which is to give funding to items like bridges, tunnels, and water systems, that are in bad need of repair, and are unable to address via existing budgets.

The fact that Congressmen abuse the earmark system is nothing new, but you also have to take it into perspective. You realize, for example, that if you eliminated every single earmark - including the important ones - you'd end up saving only 1% of government spending?

Something to think about, Wall_Rus....