The LOUDelf speaks!

From a Politico.com article — my comments afterward:

The top earmarkers in both the House and Senate are Republicans, even after the GOP has spent much of the past year making fiscal restraint and runaway government spending the centerpiece of its political message.

Rep. Bill Young (R-Fla.) and Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) — both atop defense spending panels — led their respective bodies in securing earmarks, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Young, the ranking member on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, helped secure 63 earmarks worth $128 million. Cochran, his counterpart in the Senate, had his hand in 242 earmarks worth nearly $498 million. In the House, Young was followed by Reps. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) with $121 million, Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) with $116 million and Jim Moran (D-Va.) with $107 million. After Cochran, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) was No. 2 in earmarks with $392 million, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) received $368 million in earmarks and Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) grabbed $292 million for his home state.

Democrats changed earmarking rules when they took control of Congress after the 2006 election, making earmark requests part of the public record. And in appropriations bills, lawmakers were forced to put their names next to their projects in the bill.

But the move hasn’t dramatically curtailed the number of earmarks. Congress spent $16 billion on pork-barrel spending in fiscal 2010 spending bills — a slight increase over fiscal 2009, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Hawaii — represented by Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) — had the most earmarks per capita: $412 million for its nearly 1.3 million citizens. Wyoming had the least per capita and overall — $5.76 million.

This got me to thinking:  The GOP is riding a wave of popularity back to being a name almost openly spoken in public.  Much of this was beating the government waste and spending drums and painting Obama and company (often quite accurately) as economically challenged.   This has resulted in 3 straight Republican victories and has pulled the party from political oblivion to suddenly becoming the David to the Democrat Goliath.  They claim to be winning based on common sense and fighting a war to cut through the government bureaucracy and to reduce inefficiency.  Yet, I read this article…

Hypocrisy might be the most annoying thing to me.  The “do as I say, not as I do” only works for parents who obviously know far better than their children about life, consequence, and survival.  Apparently, this is what some in the GOP think of the American public.  Seriously, how can a party that rails for smaller government, and less spending in order to justify lowering taxes have the top two pork-offenders who have combined alone to receive over $600 million in funds for pet projects ($2.00 from every American)?  Wouldn’t that qualify as the definition of hypocritical?

If you have read any of my previous posts, you know I have no love for our two major parties.  I focus on issues, and the candidate’s record, not what their party mantra is.  If they start spitting out the “vote for me because I’m not in THAT party” BS, I immediately discount them as bought hacks.  This is a prime example (and trust me I can come up with tons on the Dems) of GOP hypocrisy in action.

But again, I have to agree with Bill Mahr (though he’s an @$$ in most other areas) that Americans may just be as dumb as the politicians think we are.   We consistently vote in people who treat us as stupid, as evidenced by the GOP.   We consistently vote for style over substance, as evidenced by our current president.  We are dumbed down into thinking you can only choose between red and blue (imagine if that were your only choice at the car dealership?).  We perpetuate these issues by re-electing these bozos who lie consistently, and cost us ALL our hard-earned cash.

GOP, can you set a good example and strip hypocrisy from your platform and party?

Filed under: Politics Tagged: | Bill, Budget, Centrist, Cochran, Congress, Conservative, Corruption, Democrat, Earmark, hypocrisy, Indepependent, liberal, moderate, Politics, Pork, republican, spending, Thad, Third, united states, Young