Author Topic: We just had a drain the swamp election: Paul Ryan blocks House GOPs attempt to bring back earmarks  (Read 1010 times)

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Offline Free Vulcan

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Good news for fiscal conservatives, although the more worried I get about presidential power increasing at Congress’s expense, the more willing I am to hear out the counterargument on earmarks. The fiscal reason to bar earmarks, obviously, is to reduce wasteful spending by limiting Congress’s power to shovel federal dollars at their pet projects back home. The counterargument, which gets less attention, is that the ban does little except to shift the waste and cronyism to the executive branch. Former Reps. Martin Frost and Tom Davis wrote about that last year:..

Read more at: http://hotair.com/archives/2016/11/16/we-just-had-a-drain-the-swamp-election-paul-ryan-blocks-house-gops-attempt-to-bring-back-earmarks/
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Offline EC

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Good. Earmarks are a pernicious evil.

If you want to have government by the people, for the people, the people have to be able to see what's going on. That means showing funding up front, not making them dig for a two line paragraph on page 425 of a completely unrelated bill. One bill, one thing.
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Offline IsailedawayfromFR

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Good. Earmarks are a pernicious evil.

If you want to have government by the people, for the people, the people have to be able to see what's going on. That means showing funding up front, not making them dig for a two line paragraph on page 425 of a completely unrelated bill. One bill, one thing.

So true.

I want an open debate on the merits of everything included in the budget, every year.

If not a rock-solid reason to fund it, it goes away.

Those earmarks are a reason those DC politicians get cozy with lobbyists and entrenched.
No punishment, in my opinion, is too great, for the man who can build his greatness upon his country's ruin~  George Washington


Online Bigun

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+1 for Paul Ryuan.
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Online Bigun

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So true.

I want an open debate on the merits of everything included in the budget, every year.

If not a rock-solid reason to fund it, it goes away.

Those earmarks are a reason those DC politicians get cozy with lobbyists and entrenched.

Which is exactly why the current practice of base line budgeting should be put onto the ash heap of history and replaced with a zero based budgeting process.
« Last Edit: November 17, 2016, 02:13:18 pm by Bigun »
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Online LMAO

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Good news.

How long can he hold out remains to be seen. There will be intense pressure on him not from just some of the GOP in Congress but Trump supporters as well
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Online LMAO

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So true.

I want an open debate on the merits of everything included in the budget, every year.

If not a rock-solid reason to fund it, it goes away.



Or if it's the Constitution. Anyone can come up with a rock solid reason to fund something
I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them.

Barry Goldwater

http://www.usdebtclock.org

My Avatar is my adult autistic son Tommy

Offline EC

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Or if it's the Constitution. Anyone can come up with a rock solid reason to fund something

While true - with earmarks they pretty much don't have to. They are hidden from all but the real political junkies, so why justify them?

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Offline GrouchoTex

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Is Ryan going back to being the fiscal hawk we thought he was in 2012?

I sure hope so.

This is good news.