I am bound to stir some controversy amongst our friends in the RedCounty.com community, but I absolutely have to refute this ridiculous "brainfart piece" written by my good friend Chip Hanlon over at greenfaucet.com.
Chip, I hate to be the bearer of bad news for you, but Barack Obama isn't going to be your savior either. Obama has no ability to end earmarks. The legislative branch is the one that controls earmarks, not the executive. If Obama says that there won't be any earmarks in bills, his only recourse is to veto bills that contain earmarks. You are seriously naive if you think Obama is going to shoot down bills from a Democratic Congress over an earmark. Ain't. Gonna. Happen.
Let's look at what Obama actually said. He did not say that he would even try to eliminate earmarks. Obama actually said that in the economic recovery package (read: yet another socialist spending program) there would not be any funding for pet projects inserted "without review." So, what does that mean? Will every project a Congresscritter specifically requests be reviewed on the House floor? Will the Appropriations Committee, for example, publicly review all those projects? Will those projects -- and their sponsors -- be printed someone so that the public may review? Will the review be done behind closed doors by the Obama Administration and Democrat House leaders?
Republican Leader, my Congressman and a Great American -- John Boehner -- hasn't been outmaneuvered; it's ridiculous to even suggest that. The House GOP Conference, under the leadership of John Boehner, has adopted the strongest earmark reforms to date that include no "monuments to me" (for an example see: Rangel, Rep. Charlie or Byrd, Rep. Robert) and no "airdropping" earmarks into bills at the last moment during House-Senate negotiations to reach a compromise bill.
Another thing: Whining from your perch in California about the lack of conservative street cred on the part of the most fiscally conservative Republican that this Congress has seen for a long time while is the funniest aspect of your ranting.
Anyone who actually knows the man will tell you that he does not lead by fiat, iron fist or all-around bullying. Chip, do you really want the House GOP to revert to the heady days of Tom "The Hammer" Delay? The good old days that lead the Republican conference in to moral and fiscal decay is not a period of history that I would prefer to see repeat itself.
Real leadership isn't about laying down the law and telling those that disagree with you to take a hike. Democrats came to power spouting truths about a culture of corruption which was enabled and nourished by just the style of leadership you are advocating for and even they failed to learn that lesson. Speaker Pelosi is going right down the same path and many of the faults that put them back in power are have already resurfaced. The Culture of Corruption is back under new management. Republicans ought to stand for eradicating that festering cancer from the body politic.
I hope, my friend, that you are smarter about money and market issues than you are about Congressional politics or we're all in a heap of trouble. Your first clue that you were way off base is when the Huffington Post expressed any jkind of interest in re-printing your blustery diatribe.
