Florida Republicans get wakeup call on earmarks, but Democrat is biggest spender

It’s an old strategy, developed over time by members of Congress—get money for your district, but project a reputation as a representative who is fiscally responsible. In Saturday’s Florida Times-Union, 4 Republicans were taken to task for inserting earmarks in bills they later voted against. The biggest of the Republican earmarks cited in the T-U article can be attributed to Rep. Ander Crenshaw—$26 million for a fitness center at Mayport Naval Station.

Crenshaw is known for his support of the military.

I think this is a wakeup call for our party. In my opinion if you call yourself a conservative, the key qualifier rests on spending. Spending is the platform supporting the tower of big government and as that tower grows, personal property and therefore personal liberty decline.

Earmarks are mindset common in congressional culture. Over the years, these pork barrel projects often gave a representative grounds to tell his constituents how much he had done for his district.

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) once made a statement declaring earmarks had been around since our country’s birth. He’s wrong—earmarks got off the ground in the mid-1800s.

Americans for Prosperity has an analysis of earmarks that sheds light on how the practice of getting funding for a specific project grew by leaps and bounds: “... the history of the Defense Appropriations Bill: Taxpayers for Common Sense calculated that the 1970 Defense Appropriations Bill had a dozen earmarks; the 1980 bill had 62 earmarks; and by 2005, the defense bill had skyrocketed to 2,671 earmarks.The most recent bill spends money on anything from the eradication of brown tree snakes in Guam, to a virtual reality spray paint simulator system in Pine City, Minnesota. (And remember, this is the Defense Appropriations Bill. What do snakes and spray paint have to do with maintaining our nation’s security?)”

Federal spending is as out of control as a hungry bear in a pizza parlor, and rising from the grassroots are a number of voices calling for reining in overall spending and pork as well. At the moment there is weak oversight and little sense of responsibility. Perhaps the best way to get it across to the taxpayer is to remind people that a percentage of every federal dollar spent comes out of your pocket.

Even if you’re in the lucky majority who pay no income taxes, if you work, you still pay social security, Medicare and other taxes that raise their ugly little heads at the gas pump, on your phone bills (cell and landline) and soon on your lack of health insurance if you choose not to buy the unconstitutionally mandated insurance President Barack Obama and Democrats have demanded every American purchase.

If you smoke, you know all about those taxes—radon may be the number two cause of lung cancer and AIDS may be the most expensive disease to treat but if you smoke, the feds (and many states) have a target on your back the size of Texas.

If you’re in the group of Americans not working, collecting government money and paying no taxes whatsoever, all I can say is the day will come soon when you feel our pain. That’s how government works. Just check out California’s predicament—one of the largest economies in the world must issue IOUs. They’re out of dough.

For Republicans, the newspaper article signifies a significant change in the national psyche. We grassrooters are watching what you do and what you spend.

For Democrats it’s hopeless. In July, the T-U also did an article about Rep. Corrine Brown who earmarks with the enthusiasm of Paris Hilton in a Beverly Hills boutique. Thing is, Brown votes for the bills she places earmarks in, and other thing is, she doesn’t plan to change a thing. In an article in July, the T-U said, “Brown has helped secure $664 million, 56 percent of all earmarks brought in by area lawmakers in the past three budgets, according to a Times-Union review of data compiled by Taxpayers for Common Sense…”

Brown has already requested $357 million in the 2011 budget, an amount that dwarfs the wildest Republican in the land when it comes to earmarks.

It must be pointed out that Crenshaw’s fitness center earmark has national relevancy because it’s for the military. However, I prefer that those I voted for have zero earmarks.

The only justification for any earmark is a national emergency.

Spending of course is a Democrat party tradition, followed by taxing. Obama managed, in a very short time in the US Senate, to sponsor or co-sponsor millions and millions of earmarks, exceeding even Brown. One of the most outrageous of Obama’s favorite earmarks (the Obama earmark list is still online) was $30,000,000 for the National Writing Project. Apparently the junior senator wasn’t aware Americans already pay through the nose for public schools to teach children to write. And the senator’s earmarks are in that same budget he loves to assail President George W. Bush for.

For Republicans who choose not to reform spending, don’t be surprised if you see a wakeup call on earmarks in your area newspaper. And don’t be surprised if it costs you votes in the long run.

(Commentary by Kay B. Day/Aug. 21, 2010)