Sen. Harkin, 7th biggest earmarker, calls FisCons “cult”

Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa is the latest Democrat to sound off against fiscal conservatives in Congress. Taking center stage with the man who brought IndyMac down at an opportune time for Democrats (Sen. Charles Schumer of New York), Harkin ranted about the debt ceiling fight, saying it is not between Democrats and Republicans. No. It’s between Republicans and their “cult fringe.”

Harkin not only omitted his own spending sins, he appears to believe President George W. Bush is still in office and Republicans still control the legislative branch.

Harkin said, “Democrats are willing to do whatever is necessary to raise the debt ceiling, not for future borrowing but to pay the debts that we racked up in the past. Which, mostly was racked up by a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican President in the last 8 years. Yet, they're not willing to pay the bills.”

For starters, Harkin, if he wanted to be brutally honest, would point out his earmarking habits that are very similar to those of President Barack Obama who functioned like an earmarker on steroids when he was a junior senator.

Open Secrets said, “Tom Harkin sponsored or co-sponsored 198 earmarks totalling $273,589,200 in fiscal year 2010 ranking 7th out of 100 senators.” Wow.

Taxpayers can be proud—we gave money to  Harkin to endow grants for public schools in Iowa (the grants are named for Harkin), $40 million for an international effort to combat child labor (not in the U.S. but abroad), and numerous  local road and even building improvements in Iowa. I’d say Harkin took the US taxpayer to the cleaners when it came to providing for the “general welfare” in his home state.

As if that's not enough, Open Secrets shows that Goldman Sachs, one of the bailout recipients, was also one of Harkin's biggest donors.

Harkin also overlooked the big spending Congress his Democrats ran after they took control of both the Senate and the House in 2006. Harkin also overlooked the bailouts that were due in large part to policy set by Democrats—to President Bill Clinton and Larry Summers as well as to Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.). All those Democrats threw regulation out the door, took public credit for doing so and publicly celebrated affordable housing for all (and loans written with no income verification).

Harkin's colleague Sen. Schumer was too happy to oblige urging on the meltdown he knew was coming, one reason he shared a letter about IndyMac's stability with  media. IndyMac tanked.

Harkin is old guard—he first came to Congress in 1975. He may resent the fiscal conservatives he calls a “cult fringe,” but he should also be reminded when his party had control, they didn’t even try to come up with a budget. Yet they spent, just as they spent during the Bush administration when they expanded children’s health insurance.

Don’t look to legacy media to call Harkin out for his Democrappery (as I call it) because they won’t. After all, he’s a big earmarking, big government Democrat, part of the “cult” controlling his own party at present.

(Commentary by Kay B. Day/July 20, 2011)