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Redwood Falls, Minn. —
Apparently the message went in one ear and out the other. It was my belief voters in the last election pretty much put out the word that the legislators who work for us, let me emphasize that, “who work for us,” need to cut down on spending.
Let’s start locally.
The lame duck session is going to be the last for outgoing 18-term Congressman Jim Oberstar of Minnesota, but old habits die hard, including requesting tens of millions of dollars in earmarks in the omnibus appropriations bill before Congress.
Oberstar leads the Minne-sota House delegation in the pork barrel spending process.
He has attached his name to 29 separate requests, including 23 for Minnesota pet projects.
On the Senate side of the leger, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota requested 77 earmarks in the bill, while Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota re-quested 68 earmarks.
Overall, Minnesota’s representatives in Washington have requested 101 earmarks worth a total of $85,271,000, some $17 million more than last fiscal year, which rang in at 102 earmarks that cost taxpayers more than $68 million.
I’m not trying to pick on the Democrats, well maybe I am, but in contrast Congressmen Bachmann, Kline and Paul-sen, did not request earmarks.
Included in the Minnesota request is $500,000 for the study on the Northern Lights Express high-speed rail connection to Duluth.
Known by some as the train to nowhere.
Sen. John McCain lambasted a $246,000 earmark for bovine tuberculosis in Minne-sota and Michigan.
He also cited a $727,000 earmark to compensate ranchers in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan whenever endangered wolves eat their cattle. The grey wolf program has been known to waste millions of taxpayer dollars every year to recover endangered wolves that now overpopulate the west and midwest.
The national $1.27 trillion omnibus monstrosity would fully fund ObamaCare for a year and contains more than 6,600 outrageous earmarks, favors, kickbacks and handouts from lawmakers to favored special interests totaling more than $8 billion.
That includes $349,000 for swine waste management, $3.5 million for termite re-search in Louisiana, $6 million for parkland acquisition in Hawaii and $15 billion to the International Monetary Fund to bail out Ireland.
Yet, at least four Senate Republicans are considering supporting this bill.
Support enough to push this across the finish line.
Wake up guys and gals, the nation is quickly going broke.
Did you forget the Senate Republican conference moratorium against earmarks, or do you think you are excluded?
Dick Morris, speaking on Fox this past Wednesday, offered some interesting information about all these earmarks. He said not even he found about this until of late – these earmarks to dedicated groups are usually is just a fundraising ploy for the Congressmen who sponsor them.
For example, a congressman or senator secures a earmark for some outlandish “research” (not a remedy) for lets say $500,000 for legume research in Idaho.
The lobbyist for that university or group donates an amount of money to that politician’s campaign fund.
For anybody else, they would get the book thrown at them for bribery and extortion. It’s a kickback!
However, the way it flows now, it’s legalized bribery.
Morris, who was in the Clinton White House for many years, said he was even surprised by this.
As a friend of mine in Redwood Falls has shared with me many times: “We have the best politicians money can buy.”
It kind of takes the Merry out of Christmas and the happy out of New Year, doesn’t it?
Quote for the Day
“A president needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it.”
– Harry S. Truman
Apparently the message went in one ear and out the other. It was my belief voters in the last election pretty much put out the word that the legislators who work for us, let me emphasize that, “who work for us,” need to cut down on spending.
Let’s start locally.
The lame duck session is going to be the last for outgoing 18-term Congressman Jim Oberstar of Minnesota, but old habits die hard, including requesting tens of millions of dollars in earmarks in the omnibus appropriations bill before Congress.
Oberstar leads the Minne-sota House delegation in the pork barrel spending process.
He has attached his name to 29 separate requests, including 23 for Minnesota pet projects.
On the Senate side of the leger, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota requested 77 earmarks in the bill, while Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota re-quested 68 earmarks.
Overall, Minnesota’s representatives in Washington have requested 101 earmarks worth a total of $85,271,000, some $17 million more than last fiscal year, which rang in at 102 earmarks that cost taxpayers more than $68 million.
I’m not trying to pick on the Democrats, well maybe I am, but in contrast Congressmen Bachmann, Kline and Paul-sen, did not request earmarks.
Included in the Minnesota request is $500,000 for the study on the Northern Lights Express high-speed rail connection to Duluth.
Known by some as the train to nowhere.
Sen. John McCain lambasted a $246,000 earmark for bovine tuberculosis in Minne-sota and Michigan.
He also cited a $727,000 earmark to compensate ranchers in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan whenever endangered wolves eat their cattle. The grey wolf program has been known to waste millions of taxpayer dollars every year to recover endangered wolves that now overpopulate the west and midwest.
The national $1.27 trillion omnibus monstrosity would fully fund ObamaCare for a year and contains more than 6,600 outrageous earmarks, favors, kickbacks and handouts from lawmakers to favored special interests totaling more than $8 billion.
That includes $349,000 for swine waste management, $3.5 million for termite re-search in Louisiana, $6 million for parkland acquisition in Hawaii and $15 billion to the International Monetary Fund to bail out Ireland.
Yet, at least four Senate Republicans are considering supporting this bill.
Support enough to push this across the finish line.
Wake up guys and gals, the nation is quickly going broke.
Did you forget the Senate Republican conference moratorium against earmarks, or do you think you are excluded?
Dick Morris, speaking on Fox this past Wednesday, offered some interesting information about all these earmarks. He said not even he found about this until of late – these earmarks to dedicated groups are usually is just a fundraising ploy for the Congressmen who sponsor them.
For example, a congressman or senator secures a earmark for some outlandish “research” (not a remedy) for lets say $500,000 for legume research in Idaho.
The lobbyist for that university or group donates an amount of money to that politician’s campaign fund.
For anybody else, they would get the book thrown at them for bribery and extortion. It’s a kickback!
However, the way it flows now, it’s legalized bribery.
Morris, who was in the Clinton White House for many years, said he was even surprised by this.
As a friend of mine in Redwood Falls has shared with me many times: “We have the best politicians money can buy.”
It kind of takes the Merry out of Christmas and the happy out of New Year, doesn’t it?
Quote for the Day
“A president needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it.”
– Harry S. Truman
