Pork Spending

The president wants to eliminate port in the budget. . . I would like to know how he is going to do this when this is the best way for the incumbent politician to buy votes for the next election. He says he wants to end earmarks. . . I don’t see how he can do this without getting congress to go along, and they are the ones that benefit the most from it? Why are they going to stop.

If you really want to end the pork spending are you willing to give up the pet projects in your state too? We all have to do this together. We need to watch what our government is doing and contact them whenever we see pork in the bills that can be removed. Call or write to your reps and ask them to vote against it. The hard part is we have to be consistent and not only cut out the pork in the other guys back yard but our own too. This will hurt at first, but in the end we will all have more money in our pocket to do what we want with, and less wasted on things like the BIG DIG and the Greenbush Line in Massachusetts. These are both great examples of spending money at the state and federal level in huge amounts that only benefit a few people.

For a look at the local level look at the Mass Turnpike. . . . still collecting tolls after all these years of being paid off. They were supposed to stop collecting years ago but now all you hear is how much money it would cost us to stop, and all the jobs lost. . . Sorry folks, the tolls were to pay off building the road, not as a revenue generator for the state. Now that is just what it is, a way to pay for the Big Dig and a place that our politicians can give jobs to their friends. It has become a huge piece of pork that does all it can to protect itself from any cuts, and the Mass driver keeps paying and paying for a road that is already paid off.

Maybe we could get a law or rule passed so that our Congressmen have to show the benefit to the voters of the spending. Maybe there is some other way to force visibility on this. We could make it mandatory that all money expenditures must be voted on by the full house, no more sneaking thing in during the committee. Maybe we could make it so bills can only address one thing? No more burying pork in bills it has nothing to do with so no one knows it is even there when they vote on that 1000 page bill. OK, your pork may be a great idea but if it cost millions and only benefits a few what is the point? If the few want it that bad they can pay for it and keep their hands out of my wallet.

To me visibility is the key, how can we keep stuff out where the voters can see it? How do we prevent the back room deals? Is there some way to make it so you can not propose or maybe vote on money for your own district? Heck it is conflict of interest to have the same guy asking for the money and voting to give it to himself. . . In this day of the World Wide Web there must be some way to get this info out and make our government give us back control. It starts with voting in some new blood on the state and federal level and we can build from there.

Yes, it will hurt at first as we all have to re-adjust to living without all the Federal hand outs, but in these hard times we have to do it. Jobs may be lost at first, but new ones will be generated as more money is available at the local level for spending. Without the Feds taking money from us to spend all over the country we will be able to use the money we save on our own community. We can’t keep propping up failing sectors of the economy, they need to learn to cut back and stand on their own. It is far past the time we need to start running this country as a business. Our future and our children’s future depend on it.